Book Reviews : Freedom's Frontier: Atlantic Union Now. By CLARENCE K. STREIT. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961. Pp. xiv, 318. $3.95.)

• Author: H.R. Dieterich
• Published date: 01 September 1961
• Date: 01 September 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400341
• Subject Matter: Articles

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Freedom’s Frontier: Atlantic Union Now. By CLARENCE K. STREIT. (New York:
Harper and Brothers, 1961. Pp. xiv, 318. $3.95.)
Twenty-one years ago, in his widely-publicized Union Now, Clarence Streit
urged that the democracies immediately band together in a super-federation
which would be both a shield against the Axis and a step in the direction of
world government. Freedom’s Frontier is a sort of &dquo;coming-of-age&dquo; of these
proposals and of Streit’s philosophy. The author first explores two major areas in
support of his contention that political and economic union of the free nations
is imperative and that such a step is shorter and easier than most realize. World
events, especially since 1939, and the experience of both the League and the
United Nations lead Streit ineluctably to this conclusion. And in his analysis of
American history he finds &dquo;momentous and inspiring lessons&dquo; which illustrate
the manifold benefits and practical possibilities of a federal Atlantic Union. The
second part of Freedom’s Frontier restates the original Union Now proposals,
somewhat abridged but essentially unchanged. An appendix includes an illustra-
tive constitution for the proposed Union (a document strikingly similar to ours
of 1787) and brief notes from the author’s personal papers tracing his road to the
idea of union.
Streit alters his original proposals, substituting the fifteen NATO countries
(which he feels already present a degree of unity) for his earlier group of fifteen
scattered democracies as a nucleus for what would be, initially, an Atlantic
Union - the country of &dquo;Atlantica.&dquo; Otherwise the Union Now blueprint re-
...