A Great Figure of France

KOHN, HANS

The New Leader Book Page A Great Figure of France By Hans Kohn ANATOLE FRANCE, A LIFE WITHOUT ILLUSIONS. By Jacob Axelrad v, York: Harper and Brother,. 1944. 480 pp. $3.75. ^ FEW of the {Wt...

...Sir William Beveridge »nd his confreres have published "Pillars of Security" ¦Ml a number of other works advocating and amplifying the Beveridge Plan...
...Since these are published snd sold J*** about the same as books, they are worthy of menThere have, of course, been'outlines of schemes J*r education, national heslth service, full employment, Wwn snd country planning...
...His waiting room ia filled sgsin With patients pale and fearful...
...Home comes the dentist with his drill And gsdgets for extraction, While soldier heerts in foxholes III With quiet satisfaction...
...Like many men of that period he hardly understood the full nature of the German aspirations nor the implications of contemporary German history...
...His book makes therefore interesting reading for th» general reader, but it should be at the same time most warmly recommended to the serious student of history...
...mis Kohn, Professor of History at Smith College, ia best known for hit "Idea of Nationalism," recently published hy Ma rim I Inn] Home Comes the Dentist Army Soon »o Discharge Hea dr.d, of De.tl.ti...
...Ilrogan and others...
...He never paints France as a hero, he sees him with al his human weaknesses, a complex personality, not a text hook saint...
...He joined the Socialist movement, became even for a short time a sympsthizer with Communism, and during the first World War soon like so many others adopted a pacifist position...
...Axelrad follows Frrnce's career with an understanding which is a result of many yeui of lively interest in the subject...
...A very excellent "Short History of Chinese Civilization" by Dr...
...For example, H. N. Brailsford published a volume "Subject India," as one might expect, a plea for Indian independence...
...Who listen close, and now and then Are granted quite an earful...
...A propagandists sort of thing entitled "China But Not Cathay" by Hsiao Ch'ien was published some Months ago...
...to the youngei readers it will bring the discovery of the fabulous world of yesterday...
...Truly France had embodied much of Anatole France's spirit, its luminosity, its irony, its deep faith in the human and m the humane...
...his interests we.e now turned away from the literary salon to the people...
...The Penguin Library published a volume "The Problem of India"'hy K. S. Shelvsnkar, an Indian resident in Britain...
...Some other countries have been somewhat in the limelight Works on China have varied considerably in quality...
...Recently there have been a number of more or less trivisl books of the "know your ally" sort of thing put out by Prof...
...For the book offers more than the biography of a highly gifted wiiter who was not a man of genius, and of a highly civilized friend of good causes who was neither a leader nor a hero, it i* a piece of contemporary 1 istory seen through the eyes o* a wise man without illusions...
...And te hia office goes, once more, Whoe'er desires a denture...
...Tsui Chi was brought out by Penguin...
...Richard Armour...
...But there have been other publication* not bearing directly on proposed legisla•**• Perhaps most interesting was a survey made by a committee appointed by the government on "Mas* Oration In the African Colonies...
...A volume on "Britain's Coal" hat gained some attention...
...The prodigiously active C. D. H. Cole has put out a short treatise on "The Means to Full Employment...
...More recently, the same publishers have brought out a short book "India Since Cripps*' by Horace Alexander, which brings the subject up to date...
...Any discussion of literatim- of this sort would be •"•-sided If It did not mention the considerable volume •f irovernment White Papers which have been issued •¦ling the last year...
...Anatole France participated actively in one of the great crises which shook the existence of the Republic, in the Dreyfus affaii...
...Perhaps the most interesting group of publications has been that dealing with the future of the British Empire India, in particular, has come in for a good deal of discussion...
...FEW of the {Wt figures of the third French Republic have received a treatment adequate, to their importance for France and for the world Clemenceau, by far the greatest figure of World War I and the most far' lighted statesman of the Paris Conference, is still waiting for his bi ographer and Kenan in many ways the most interesting intellectual leader of late 19th century France, is almost unknown to American readers Anatole France has been fortunate in finding in Mr...
...Both will be amply rewarded by the hours they will spend in Anatole Kian e's not always edifying but never boring company...
...Books on the u. S. and American history are hard to come by in thia country, and the works of such a firstclass historian as Charles Beard seem to be almost unknown to the average intelligent and well-read Britisher...
...Mi Axelrad has easily written thej best book on Anatole Franci and has at the same made a significant rontrihu tion to the intelligent understanding of the third French Republic...
...Recent British Books By ROBERT ALEXANDER During the last year there has been no dearth of interesting and worthwhile nonfictional literature published in Britain...
...It called him forth from his ivory tower, from his intellectual peregrinations through many strange and attractive fields of antiquarian scholarship, literary criticism and creative writing...
...human and humane, often all too human, a unique man in his character and in the adventures of his life, and yet representatively woven into the rich social and literary texture of the French life of his time, a mirror of French development and at the same time a critic of French life...
...Axelrad a biographer who combines a thorough knowledge of the background and the whole ___-k ,«ith a warm avmnathv for the —----------- — ^ •porh with a warm sympathy for the hero ol his book...
...There has been no really first-class book published recently about the United States...
...And so he is seen by his latest biographer...
...Me descended into the arena of political strife and showed there the same cool powers of observation, the same hostility for all false p'etenses, Ihe same hatred for hypocrisy as in his writing...
...There has been a good deal of literature bearing on the shape of things to come...
...On the other hand, Leopold Amery, Secretary of State for India, and others, have published volumes giving the anti-Congress, British Imperial side of the question...
...When Anatole France died in 1924, the literary mood of the period had left him far behind...
...Newspaper Headline Hone comes the dentist from the wsr, Back from his treat adventure...
...To the older men who enjoyed reading Anatole France and who itill remember the beginning of the century, the book will recall and revive much of the past...
...In May, 1944, they also published the famous "Plan of Economic Development for India," issued by a group of leading Indian industrialists and financiers...
...From bis participation in the Dreyfus affair on, France became a changed man...
...A best Mile.- twenty years before, the old master was regarded as outmoded by the literary youth Yet when he died, a leading Englishman, almost of Anato'e France's biblical age, called France in his obituary notice "the spirit of his country...

Vol. 27 • November 1944 • No. 47


 
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