POST-WAR EUROPE
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Post-War Europe THE LEGACY OF NAZISM, by Frank Munk. Mac-millan. $2.50. THE NEW EUROPE, by Bernard Newman. Mac-millan. $3.75.. Reviewed by Harry Elmer Barnes THE SUB-TITLE of Doctor Munk's book...
...Newman is an English novelist and an indefatigable traveller over Europe...
...In treating Germany, Mr...
...Munk covers such topics as the general nature of the Nazi economy, its modifications in wartime, the conquest and exploitation of the occupied nations, and the problem of reconstruction after the war...
...Hence, his program for post-war Germany is to beat the German people to the earth and then rub it in...
...There is a great deal of interesting information not so usually accessible in popular and general works of this sort...
...It is difficult for even so talented an author to write good economic history and wage a holy crusade against evil in one book...
...Reviewed by Harry Elmer Barnes THE SUB-TITLE of Doctor Munk's book is "The Economic and Social Consequences of Totalitarianism," It thus deals with a field about which there is great need for impartial and authoritative information...
...Munk's vivid book is not the answer to our prayer...
...He takes up the various countries of Europe, one by one, discussing their nature and problems, past, present, and future...
...His preparation, for writing the book grows more out of extensive informal observation than from wide and rigorous training in history and economics...
...The author is a patriotic Czech, and while he probably writes with more restraint than would most of us Americans if placed in his position, still the book takes the form of documenting a passion, more than of explaining a situation...
...As a political and economic analyst, the author is less impressive...
...He holds that it is German race and civilization that are responsible for German military conquest...
...Newman follows a now popular trend of denying any differentiation between the German people and the Nazis...
...What we need is such a book on German economics as Dr...
...Unfortunately, most of the books which have appeared thus far on the Nazi economic system have been lyrical products of Nazi propaganda or else violent diatribes against the Nazis...
...It is an excellent political travel book, interpreting European problems from the standpoint of an enthusiastic British nationalist and imperialist...
...Despite the emotional undercurrent in the book, it gives evidence of wide reading, a good command of the facts, and flashes of brilliant interpretation...
...George Kneller gave us on Nazi education, namely, one which aims to understand the situation without either praising or condemning it...
...The general burden of his argument is that, no matter if the United Nations win a most crushing victory over the Nazis, the European economy can never return to anything like the pattern of the '30's...
...In the last matter he quite naturally emphasizes the necessity of safeguarding the rights of small nations...
...Only enlightened and decisive economic planning can save Europe frdm chaos and misery over an indefinite period...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 49
