Book Reviews : Modern France. Problems of the Third and Fourth Republics. Edited by EDWARD MEAD EARLE. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1951. Pp. xiv, 522. $6.00.)

• Date: 01 December 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400425
• Author: George V. Wolfe
• Published date: 01 December 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

668
Leites’ study is the first of a series of monographs in which The Rand
Corporation presents to the public the results of research undertaken
by members of its staff. The title of the study is an unfortunate one.
Only when, if ever, the records of the secret meetings of the Politburo
are open to inspection, will it be possible to know whether behind the
facade of solidarity a tug of views on political strategy goes on; or whether
the men in the Kremlin are but a facade for the man in the Kremlin who,
aided perhaps by an inner circle of advisers, actually determines political
strategy. Because of the lack of access to the relevant source material,
any attempted formulation of such an operational code can at best be
conjectural and must be inferred from an analysis of concrete Soviet
political actions. But this is not the approach of the present study. What
the author actually presents is a summary of rules of political strategy
distilled from the writings of Lenin and Stalin. That the rules of political
strategy advanced by these men constitute a component part of any
hypothetical operational code of the Politburo, is readily admitted. How-
ever, to call such a summary The Operational Code of the Politburo is
unfortunate and misleading.
The author’s summary of Leninist-Stalinist rules of political strategy
is quite valuable, though marred by a lack of sufficient documentation.
Too often the interested reader has to accept the author’s conclusions
without adequate reference to the sources from which they are derived.
GEORGE V. WOLFE.
The College of Idaho.
Modern France. Problems of the Third and Fourth Republics. Edited by
EDWARD MEAD EARLE. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1951.
Pp. xiv, 522. $6.00.)
All but one of the twenty-eight essays contained in this book are
papers that were read at the Conference on Modern France held in
Princeton in April, 1950. Except for Andr6 Siegfried, who contributed the
stimulating introductory paper, &dquo;Approach to an...