Book Reviews : Évolution de la structure du parti radical. By DANIEL BARDONNET. (Paris: Montchrestien, 1960. Pp. 293. 29,00 NF.)

• Date: 01 September 1961
• Published date: 01 September 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400314
• Subject Matter: Articles

771

should

be

assessed.

Export

of

cheap

books

is

largely

ignored,

although

this

is

perhaps

the

closest

linking

of

economic

and

ideological

penetration

into

whole

populations.

The

relation

of

military

to

economic

influence

needs

to

be

weighed

more

fully:

are

the

Communists

aiming

at

a

stand-off

with

the

West

in

military

capability,

and

preparing

economic

weapons

to

tip

the

revolutionary

scales?

Books

of

this

type

should

become

continuing

studies

and

it

is

to

be

hoped

that

future

editions

may

eliminate

some

of

the

shortcomings

of

this

first

venture.

Tighter

editing

could

avoid

some

of

the

overly

frequent

repetitions

which

arose

in

this

work

from

too-hasty

combining

of

separate

articles

on

similar

subjects.

A

bibliography

restricted

to

non-Slavic

sources

could

profit

from

expansion

to

include

analyses

by

non-western

authorities.

Generalizing

from

too-few

particulars

becomes

both

tedious

and

dangerous:

readers

will

welcome

addi-

tional

data

to

supplement

the

overworked

Icelandic

fish

which

were

cited

so

frequently

in

this

edition.

The

tendency

toward

polemics

could

more

profitably

be

confined

to

a

chapter

on

evaluations

instead

of

being

interspersed

throughout

the

book.

Analysis

of

initial

phases

of

any

topic

is

most

difficult.

Professor

Allen’s

future

task

will

be

simpler:

to

trace

the

threads

which

he

has

already

discerned

in

spite

of

many

difficulties;

to

incorporate

new

information,

such

as

the

impact

of

ruble

revaluation;

to

gauge

new

directions

and

greater

volumes

of

trade

which

previously

existed

only

in

prototype;

to

proofread

more

closely

so

that

a

dozen

or

two

errors

will

not

detract

from

his

findings.

The

general

reader

as

well

as

the

specialist

can

profit

from

Professor

Allen’s

industry.

This

book

should

be

especially

useful

as

a

reference

in

courses

in

comparative

economic

systems,

studies

of

the

&dquo;world

affairs&dquo;

type,

or

in

adult

education

presentations

which

are

concerned

with

foreign

policy.

San

Diego

State

College

NELSON

F.

NORMAN

Évolution

de la

structure

du

parti

radical.

By

DANIEL

BARDONNET.

(Paris:

Montchrestien,

1960.

Pp.

293.

29,00

NF.)

Among

the

lapidary

phrases

which

light

up

and

confuse

the

French

scene

for

Frenchmen

and

for

foreigners

is

Maurice

Barres’s

famous

&dquo;France

is

Radical.&dquo;

For

better

and

for

worse,

France

has

been

much

more

than

that,

with

extremes

of

left

and

right,

of

hardness

and

softness

of

political

style,

far

beyond

the

party

whose

name

we

customarily

mistranslate

as

&dquo;Radical

Socialist.&dquo;

Radical

&dquo;doctrine&dquo;

bafl-les

Americans,

for

we

expect

doctrine,

not

of

our

own

parties,

but

of

Continental

European

parties.

Yet

it is

over

a

generation

since

a

leading

Radical

politician

remarked

to

Alain,

the

party’s

alleged

philosopher,

&dquo;If

we

had

a

doctrine,

we

would

be

the

first

to

say

so,

wouldn’t

we?&dquo;

All

the

more

essential

then

to

understand

the

structure

of

the

party

which

supplied

so

many

of

their

directing

personnel

to

the

Third

and

Fourth

Republics.