Book Reviews: Rotting Hill. By WYNDHAM LEWIS. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co. 1952. Pp. x, 265. $3.00.)
| Published date | 01 December 1952 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295200500430 |
| Date | 01 December 1952 |
| Author | Gordon K. Lewis |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
689
GuzmAn
Blanco
employed
methods
for
mobilizing
political
power
commonly
found
in
most
of
the
Latin-American
countries
today.
There
are
a
number
of
excellent
illustrations
of
openly
forceful
methods,
such
as
cuartelazo
and
golpe
de
estado,
and
superficially
peaceful
methods,
such
as
imposici6n,
candidato
unico
and
continuismo.
The
author
is
perturbed
because
caudillismo
seems
to
occur
&dquo;in
avowedly
democratic
countries
with
supposedly
democratic
political
machinery&dquo;
(p.
174).
He
solves
the
dilemma
of
democracy
in
theory
and
authoritarianism
in
practice
with
the
explanation
of
political
default
which
&dquo;...
comes
with
the
inability
of
the
avowed
political
machinery
to
solve
the
problems
of
government
in
the
situation
of
ignorance,
poverty,
dispersion,
divisiveness,
and
lack
of
tradi-
tion
characterizing
the
Latin-American
people
after
their
emancipation
from
absolute
colonialism&dquo;
(p.
175).
Caudillismo,
then,
is
a
&dquo;temporary
phenomenon&dquo;
which
will
disappear
with
&dquo;education,
urbanization
and
industrialization,
improved
health,
and
more
international
contact&dquo;
(p.
176).
Apparently
not
enough
development
along
these
lines
has
taken
place
in
the
most
advanced
countries,
such
as
Argentina,
Cuba,
or
Colom-
bia,
where
authoritarianism
still
dominates.
If
it
can
be
assumed
that
caudillismo
is
a
product
of
Hispanic
culture,
then
it
probably
is
safer
to
argue
that
fundamental
reorientation
of
large
parts
of
an
entire
way
of
life,
taking
place
over
a
long
period
of
time,
is
required
before
caudillismo
and
other
manifestations
of
authoritarianism
will
be
eliminated
in
the
Latin-
American
countries.
The
author
has
an
excellent
short
bibliography,
mainly
from
the
Spanish
sources,
and
a
good
index.
This
is
an
interesting
and
useful
study
which
Latin-Americanists
will
find
particularly
stimulating
because
of
its
comparative
methodology.
WILLIAM
S.
STOKES.
University
of
Wisconsin.
Rotting
Hill.
By
WYNDHAM
LEWIS.
(Chicago:
Henry
Regnery
Co.
1952.
Pp.
x,
265.
$3.00.)
The
theme
of
Mr.
Lewis’s
book,
which
is
half
fiction,
half
sociological
essay,
is
essentially
a
simple
one;
postwar
Britain
is
caught
up
in
a
terrify-
ing
and
drab
process
of
both
industrial
and
moral
decline
and
the
decline,
in
turn,
is
accelerated
by
a
power-ridden
socialism
seeking
to
establish
a
new
Leviathan,
and
by
the
English
puritanical
readiness
to
identify
mate,
rial
comfort
with
moral
corruption.
It
is
not,
indeed,
clear
at
times
whether he
is
writing
as
the
artist
scornful
of
middle-class
philistinism
or
as
the
middle-class
professional
frightened
by
a
social
revolution
which
threatens
to
break
down
the
traditional
barriers
between
the
worker-by-
hand
and
the
worker-by-brain.
Moreover,
he
sometimes
permits
his
excite-
To continue reading
Request your trial