Book Reviews : The British Labour Party: Its History, Growth, Policy, and Leaders. Edited by HERBERT TRACEY. (London: The Caxton Publishing Company. 1948. 3 volumes. Pp. 895. £4. 5s. 6d.)

• Author: William Ebenstein
• Published date: 01 September 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400320
• Date: 01 September 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

503
Power and Conscience is an investigation of human conscience as
a factor in the development of power situations. After defining con-
science as &dquo;... the form consciousness takes-whether perceptual, or classi-
ficatory, or creative-when crucial action impends&dquo; (p. 19), Smith seeks-
but does not find-a universality for conscience, first in religion, then
in the idealism of the Kantian school, in sociology, in psychology, and in
the materialism of the dialectic. His conclusion, unsatisfactory alike for
the determinist and for the universalist, is that conscience, which is akin
to consciousness, is peculiarly private; leaving the restraint of conscience
upon the use of power exercised through the balance or the imbalance of
private wills and of private concepts of right or wrong, rather than through
a universal conscience.
Little has been gained by the republication of these works. None of the
three studies is designed for the casual reader, and students of political
power will find the original volumes readily available in any good library.
MARVIN W. HEATH.
Vanderbilt University.
The British Labour Party: Its History, Growth, Policy, and Leaders. Edited
by HERBERT TRACEY. (London: The Caxton Publishing Company.
1948. 3 volumes. Pp. 895. £4. 5s. 6d.)
Profusely illustrated and attractively printed and produced, the three
volumes of The British Labour Party are a welcome addition to the meager
literature on the development, accomplishments, and aims of the British
labor movement. The presentation is popular and straightforward, with-
out many ifs and buts, and the viewpoint expressed is frankly Labour. The
editor, Chief Publicity Officer of the Trades Union Congress, has seen
to it that the main currents of thought in the British labor movement are
included in the work, and the impressive list of contributors includes,
among others, the names of Prime Minister Attlee, Aneurin Bevan,
G. D. H. Cole, Hugh Gaitskell, Lord Henderson, Jennie Lee, Herbert
...