STOLPER, GUSTAV. This Age of Fable. Pp. xx, 369. New York: Reynal & Hitch cock, Inc., 1941. $3.00

• Date: 01 May 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100129
• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Author: Louis L. Snyder
• Subject Matter: Articles

195

resources.

The

weak

link

is

seen

to

be

a

failure

at

the

organizational

level.

To

de-

velop

an

effective

organization

is

the

chief

task

of the

planner.

Without

such

an

or-

ganization,

democracy

is

very

seriously

weakened.

In

general,

the

book

is

a

mixture

of

the

concrete

and

the

ideal,

and

the

reader

must

be

ready

to

jump

from

one

to

the

other

and

back

without

warning.

Consequently

one

is

left

with

a

certain

uneasiness

that

wish-

ful

thinking

has

tended

to

minimize

diffi-

culties.

Nevertheless,

the

Godkin

Lectures

(which

evoked

the

book)

have

seldom

if

ever

enjoyed

a

more

trenchant

presentation

of

a

more

timely

subject.

ERNEST

S.

GRIFFITH

Washington,

D.

C.

LENNARD,

REGINALD.

Democracy:

The

Threatened

Foundations.

Pp.

x,

121.

Cambridge:

At

the

University

Press;

New

York:

The

Macmillan

Co.,

1941.

$1.25.

This

is

a

tract

by

an

Englishman

ad-

dressed

to

Englishmen,

and

while

it

makes

an

invidious

reference

to

the

forms

of

de-

mocracy

in

France,

it

meticulously

refrains

from

mentioning

those

in

the

United

States,

after

once

having

identified

the

essence

of

democracy

in

Lincoln’s

phrase,

&dquo;govern-

ment

of

the

people,

by

the

people,

for

the

people.&dquo;

’

Mr.

Lennard,

who

is

sub-warden

at

Wad-

ham

College,

Oxford,

and

Reader

in

Eco-

nomic

History

at

Oxford

University,

makes

the

point

that

the

method

of

democracy

is

the

method

of

the

confrontation

and

recon-

ciliation

or

compromise

of

differences

by

the

processes

of

reason,

and

that

democracy

postulates

man

as

a

rational

being

employ-

ing

his

reason

to

attain

his

ends.

He

traces

the

manifestations

of

the

democratic

proc-

ess

from

the

Witan

of

626

to

the

Parliament

of

1941.

He

treats

of

these

manifestations

as

conflicts

and

compromises

of

power,

in

the

course

of

which

more

and

more

accrues

to

the

people;

but

he

disregards

the

fact

that

more

political

and

social

power

passed

into

the

hands

of

the

people

between

1832

and

1932-that

is,

after

the

American

Dec-

laration

of

Independence

and

the

Constitu-

tion

set

a

goal

for

the

imagination

of

the

world-than

in

all

the

twelve

preceding

centuries.

He

recognizes

the

import

of

education

for

democracy,

and

defends

the

tradition

of

the

humanities

against

the

to-

talitarian

exaltation

of

training

the

body.

War

and

the

ways

of

war

he

declares

an-

tagonistic

to

the

democratic

way

of

life,

whose

rule

is

&dquo;live

and

let

live.&dquo;

On

the

same

ground,

Mr.

Lennard

is

disposed

to

justify

the

theory

and

practice

of

appeasement,

although

he

calls

the

totali-

tarianism

which

between

wars

Britain

was

zealous

to appease,

Moloch,

and

treats

of

British

philosophers

of

social

organicism

like

Bosanquet,

Haldane,

and

Figgis,

as

habitants

of

the

porticoes

of

Moloch’s

tem-

ple.

Mr.

Lennard

opines

that

the

youth

of

England

was

disposed

to

worship

in

that

temple

because

the

social

prolongation

of

infancy

left

the

country

too

long

in

the

hands

of

their

elders,

who

move

too

slowly

for

impatient

youth;

and

because

youth

was

not

aware

how

fast

England

had

changed

for

the

better

in

the

lifetime

of

any

man

near

sixty.

Mr.

Lennard

thinks

that

both

education

and

social

research

can

move

faster,

and

that

these

offer

apt

tasks

for

youth.

H.

M.

KALLEN

New

School

for

Social

Research

STOLPER,

GUSTAV.

This

Age

of

Fable.

Pp.

xx,

369.

New

York:

Reynal

&

Hitch-

cock,

Inc.,

1941.

$3.00.

Mr.

Stolper

surveys

the

economic

and

po-

litical

world

in

which

we

live,

and

concludes

that

we

are

living

in

an

age

of

fable.

The

fables

embraced

by

our

age

are

twofold

in

nature:

the

ones

are

ancient

verities;

old

guideposts

of

other

ages,

that

have

lost

their

virtue

because

times

have

changed;

the

others

are

those

offered

by

a

new

theology,

&dquo;fairy

tales

unchecked

by

realities,&dquo;

that

propose

to

reduce

the

complexities

of

our

time

to

simple,

plausible

formulas.

Included

among

Mr.

Stolper’s

fables

are

concepts

of

&dquo;perfect

capitalism,&dquo;

&dquo;perfect

planning,&dquo;

&dquo;have

and

have-not

nations,&dquo;

the

economic

causes

of

war,

Britain’s

&dquo;degen-

eracy,&dquo;

the

German

&dquo;miracle,&dquo;

&dquo;e~cient&dquo;

dictatorship,

and

&dquo;decadent&dquo;

democracy.

The

author

proposes

to

&dquo;array

open

facts

against

the

fables.&dquo;

Some

of

these

fables

are

not

altogether

new

to

the

literate

pub-

lic.

One

example

must

suffice

here:

Grover

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