Book Reviews : William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Political Biography. By R. MACGREGOR DAW- SON. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1958. Pp. xiii, 521. $7.50.)
| Published date | 01 June 1960 |
| Date | 01 June 1960 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296001300222 |
| Author | Heath Macquarrie |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
528
But
this
work
is
no
apologia;
on
the
contrary,
the
author
holds
that
capi-
talism
is
tending
to
&dquo;decline
and
decay&dquo;
principally
because
further
opportunities
for
its
expansion
are
becoming
limited.
This
conclusion
is
intrinsic
to
the
author’s
view
that
capitalistic
production
is
based
fundamentally
on
an
exploitative
rela-
tion
to
foreign
markets,
a
hypothesis
which
leads
him
for
its
verification
to
a
fresh
and
extensive
study
of
the
commercial
Italian,
German,
and
Dutch
city-
states
of
the
Middle
Ages
and
Renaissance.
This
initial
commitment
also
leads
naturally
to
the
major
argument
that
the
Industrial
Revolution
does
not
mark
the
beginning
of
quintessential
capitalism,
but
rather
that
it
was
a
developmental
phenomenon
&dquo;induced
and
sustained
by
more
elementary
traits.&dquo;
The
general
theoretical
approach
is
one
of
a
relatively
relaxed
Marxism,
inducing
to
a
reinterpretation
of
capitalism
influenced
by
Weber,
Sombart,
and
others,
intellectual
debts
the
author
freely
acknowledges
in
useful
and
extensive
notes.
This
volume
is
the
first
in
a
projected
series
of
three,
the
second
to
con-
cern
capitalism
since
1917
and
the
third
to
be
a
theoretical
statement
of
the
principles
of
the
system.
It
might
be
well
to
wait
on
the
full
development
of
the
author’s
ideas
before
indulging
in
intensive
criticism.
But
this
reviewer
so
far
remains
unconvinced
by
the
completely
basic
position
given
foreign
com-
mitments
in
the
analysis
to
the
detriment
-
at
least
in
emphasis
-
of
a
careful
treatment
of
the
relative
power
positions
within
the
domestic
structures
of
West-
ern
societies.
Further,
that
commercial
city-state
capitalism
and
national
in-
dustrial
capitalism
share
some
essential
elements
is
undeniable;
perhaps
too
much
weight
has
been
placed
on
this
commonality, however,
and
not
enough
on
the
great
qualitative
differences
between
the
two,
resulting
in
neglect
of
the
far-flung
senses
of
national
identification
and
loyalty
characterizing
industrial
society,
fundamental
to
an
understanding
of
what
binds
together
the
social
structural
elements
of
the
contemporary
nation-state.
But
agree
with
it
or
not,
Professor
Cox
has
written
both
an
insightful
and
exciting
book.
It
should
arouse
fruitful
controversy
because
of
its
method
on
one
hand
and
its
underlying
orientation
on
the
other,
the
kind
of
controversy
social
scientists
always
need.
The
publishers
should
be
ashamed
of
a
product
so
laden
with
typographical
errors
as
to
inspire
distraction
and
despair.
Perhaps
the
compositors
were
in
a
conspiracy
to
demonstrate
that
even
artisanship
must
suffer
in
the
slough
of
capitalistic
decadence.
K.
H.
SILVERT
Tulane
University
William
Lyon
Mackenzie
King:
A
Political
Biography.
By
R.
MACGREGOR
DAW-
SON.
(Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
1958.
Pp.
xiii,
521.
$7.50.)
This,
the
first
in
the
three-volume
official
biography
of
Canada’s
long-time
Prime
Minister,
records
Mackenzie
King’s
story
from
his
birth
in
Toronto
in
1874
to
his
triumphs
at
the
Commonwealth
Conference
in
London
in
1923.
The
author,
one
of
Canada’s
leading
political
scientists,
had
access
to
the
late
Prime
Minister’s
vast
collection
of
papers,
including
his
voluminous
diary
which
covered
fifty-seven
years
of
public
and
private
life.
Dr.
Dawson,
unlike
most
Canadian
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