Book Reviews : Foreign Governments and Their Backgrounds. By JOHN CLARKE ADAMS, WILFRED B. KERR, JULIAN PARK, and JULIUS W. PRATT. (New York: Harper and Brothers. 1950. Pp. x, 968. $5.00.)

• Author: Philip W. Buck
• Date: 01 December 1951
• Published date: 01 December 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400427
• Subject Matter: Articles

670

farmers. In

the

federal

election

of

1925

the

Progressives

were

reduced

to

24

members

of

Parliament,

and

the

party’s

death

knell

was

finally

sounded

in

the

election

of

1926.

Morton’s

final

chapter

on

&dquo;The

Progressive

Tradition

in

Canadian

Politics

to

1935&dquo;

is

a

masterly

summing

up

of

the

impact

of

the

party

nun

the

GnnnHinn

noliticnl

svstem.

-

- - - -_

DEAN

E.

MCHENRY.

University

of

California,

Los

Angeles.

Foreign

Governments and

Their

Backgrounds.

By

JOHN

CLARKE

ADAMS,

WILFRED

B.

KERR,

JULIAN

PARK,

and

JULIUS

W.

PRATT.

(New

York:

Harper

and

Brothers.

1950.

Pp.

x,

968.

$5.00.)

This

textbook

on

the

governments

of

Great

Britain,

France,

Switzer-

land,

Italy,

Russia,

Japan,

and

Germany

is

pleasantly

written,

despite

the

weight

of

factual

data

which

it

contains.

The

substance

of

the

work

is

supplemented

by

a

number

of

illuminating

maps

and

a

few

diagrams.

Constitutions

have

been

included

in

the

case

of

the

new

governments,

and

at

the

conclusion

of

each

section

there

is

a

brief

bibliographical

discussion,

dealing

chiefly

with

recently

published

books.

Being

a

work

of

collaboration,

the

approach

to

each

state

varies,

not

only

with

the

nature

of

its

government,

but

also

with

the

author’s

approach

to

the

subject.

The

historical

background

of

English

government,

for

example,

is

treated

incidentally.

In

all

the

other

sections

there

is

a

fairly

extensive

account

of

constitutional

and

political

development

before

contemporary

institutions

are

dealt

with.

This

is

only

one

divergence

in

approach,

but

it is

illustrative.

The

collaboration

of

experts

seems

at

present

one

of

the

best

ways

of

dealing

with

a

subject

which

is

complicated

and

constantly

changing.

The

preface

to

this

work

explains

that

col-

laboration

was

impaired

by

the

untimely

death

of

one

of

the

authors.

Perhaps

this

explains

certain

divergences.

From

the

standpoint

of

teaching

the

subject

to

students,

the choice

of

subject

matter

is

occasionally

open

to

criticism.

A

number

of

pages

are

devoted

to

the

work

of

the

departments

of

government

in

each

state.

This

kind

of

arrangement

of

topics

is

hard

to

teach,

and

tends

to

go

rapidly

out

of

date

anyway.

A

considerable

amount

of

space

is

devoted

to

the

economic

situation,

recent

policy,

social

and

occupational

data,

newspaper

press,

the

church,

and

similar

subjects.

All

this

is

valuable;

but

some

more

rigid

restriction

should

be

placed

on

subject

matter

in

a

book

which

deals

with

seven

different

states,

or

there

is

loss

of

focus.

Finally,

the

book

is

a

little

resistant

to

handling

by

the

teacher

and

the

student.

In

the

index

the

only

breakdown

of

subject

matter

is

under

the

heading

of

each

state;

institutions

do

not

receive

the

treatment

of