Book Reviews : Political Realism and Political Idealism. By JOHN H. HERZ. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1951. Pp. xii, 275. $3.75.)

• Author: Arnaud B. Leavelle
• Published date: 01 December 1951
• Date: 01 December 1951
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295100400415
• Subject Matter: Articles

651
Objective and unbiased approach to the delicate and complex prob-
lem of minorities is undoubtedly a must in this kind of a document; but
these virtues have been practised with such a zeal that they have prac-
tically defeated the very purpose of the memorandum. Instead of facili-
tating clear and precise judgment, the memorandum obscures it. It is,
therefore, hardly surprising that the third session of the Sub-Commission
on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities
(January 9-27, 1950), for which it has been prepared, has made dis-
couragingly little progress in its deliberations and decisions.
A valuable part of the document is a comprehensive &dquo;selected
bibliography&dquo; (pp. 26-51 ) which includes books, pamphlets, and articles
in some ten languages directly or indirectly dealing with the problem of
minorities. It seems to the reviewer that the number of publications
listed which are only in a very general and remote way connected with
the problem is disproportionately high, thus largely overshadowing the
literature directly devoted to the subject. Faithful to their determination
to avoid the &dquo;facts of life&dquo; in the realm of the minorities problem, the
compilers of this bibliography &dquo;generally speaking do not list studies on
particular minorities, except for a few whose content is related to the
aPnPral nrnhlPm.&dquo;
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JOSEPH B. SCHECHTMAN.
New York City.
Political Realism and Political Idealism. By JOHN H. HERZ. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. 1951. Pp. xii, 275. $3.75.)
A new conceptual framework within which to analyze the require-
ments of a viable democratic theory is presented in this small but pro-
vocative work. Dr. Herz, European-trained and now professor of political
science at Howard University, seeks both to support and to transcend the
historic, Anglo-American tradition. In so doing, he has achieved a
unique combination of rationalism and empiricism-a kind of rationalism
which permits the...