Book Reviews : The Year Book of World Affairs: 1950. Edited by GEORGE W. KEETON and GEORG SCHWARZENBERGER. Published under the auspices of the London Institute of World Affairs. (London: Stevens and Sons Limited. 1950. Pp. viii, 392. 25s.)

• Author: W. Harold Dalgliesh
• Published date: 01 December 1950
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295000300414
• Date: 01 December 1950
• Subject Matter: Articles

632

living

standards

and

thereby

alleviate

those

tensions

which

arise

from

economic

poverty

and

insecurity.

By

so

doing,

he

reasons,

America

will

gain

all

around:

first,

by

preventing

another

war

with

its

incalcu-

lable

destruction

and,

second,

by

raising

our

standard

of

living

through

an

increased

world

trade.

Mr.

Javits

is

in

sympathy

with

the

idea

behind

the

Marshall

Plan,

the

Point

Four

program

and

other

plans

dealing

with

the

problem

of

global

economy,

but

believes

that

these

schemes

do

not

go

far

enough.

He

feels

that

we

must

stop

thinking

in

terms

of

tens

of

billions

and

start

thinking

in

terms

of

hundreds

of

billions.

Several

objections

to

the

book

may

be

raised

at

the

outset.

One

is

the

attempt

to

interpret

the

international

scene

if

not

exclusively,

then

primarily,

in

economic

terms.

Thus

the

author

is

led

to

remark:

&dquo;Yet

we

must

never

allow

ourselves

to

forget

that

the

real

contest

between

the

United

States

and

the

U.S.S.R.

is

a

contest

between

eco-

nomic

systems,

that

the

problem

of

’we’

or

’they’

can

be

best

resolved

not

by

armed

combat

but

by

comparative

living

standards&dquo;

(p.

119).

The

term

&dquo;best&dquo;

as

used

in

the

above

quotation

reflects

a

wish;

the

supposed

nature

of

the

&dquo;real

contest&dquo;

is

at

the

least

a

highly

problematic

assertion.

More

objectionable,

however,

are

several

offhand

remarks

scattered

throughout

the

book,

of

which

the

following

is

an

example:

&dquo; ‘New

Dealism’

under

Roosevelt

was

un-American

in

theory

inasmuch

as

it

involved

dragging

down

the

upper

rather

than

lifting

up

the

lower

economic

strata

of

our

people&dquo;

(p.

83).

It

would

seem

to

this

reviewer

that

the

question

of

dragging

vs.

lifting

depends

very

much

on

the

position

one

occupies

in

the

social

strata.

A

most

questionable

assump-

tion

of

the

author

is

his

uncritical

belief

that

all

peoples

everywhere,

if

given

the

opportunity,

will

readily

emulate

the

American

tradition

of

competition

and

what

Mr.

Javits

prefers

to

term

our

system

of

&dquo;social

capitalism,&dquo;

involving

among

other

features

the

annual

outlay

of

hundreds

of

billions.

ROBERT

TUCKER.

San

Francisco

State

College.

The

Year

Book

of

World

Affairs:

1950.

Edited

by

GEORGE

W.

KEETON

and

GEORG

SCHWARZENBERGER.

Published

under

the

auspices

of

the

London

Institute

of

World

Affairs.

(London:

Stevens

and

Sons

Limited.

1950.

Pp.

viii,

392.

25s.)

Political

and

economic

problems

of

Anglo-American

significance,

but

in

considerable

measure

centered

on

areas

of

communist

penetra-

tion,

are

the

major

concern

of

this

fourth

annual

yearbook

of

the