CARL BECKER DEFENDS THE STATUS QUO
Hesseltine, William B.
Carl Becker Defends The Status Quo HOW NEW WILL THE BETTER WORLD BE? A Discussion of Postwar Reconstruct ion, by Carl L. Becker. Knopf. $2.50. Reviewed by William B. Hesseltine CARL BECKER,...
...If anyone doesn't know what the official dogmas are, he may find them presented here with fervor and conviction...
...His answer to his question, "How New Will the Better World Be...
...The chapter titles of Prof...
...Here the answers are easy: Nationalism, imperialism, power, and sovereignty are very good things after all...
...Chapters 3 and 4 ask, "Can we abate nationalism and curb the sovereign state...
...Prof...
...The author is sure that Hitler is a "manic-depressive," that the imperialism of Great Britain—however much it may be denounced by "our liberal internationalists"—has benefited India, and that "if India is not to lose her present good prospect of obtaining . . . freedom and security, one essential thing for us to do now is to lift all our fingers to save the British empire however constituted...
...This book presents the pro-war, pro-Roosevelt party line...
...And that's the point...
...But beyond that!, the answers are not clear...
...Chapter 1 asks, "What is wrong with the World we have...
...Becker answers solemnly, "the New Deal...
...But why go on...
...Then, asks Chapter 2, "Can we return to normalcy...
...But Mr...
...Reviewed by William B. Hesseltine CARL BECKER, eminent historian, and author ^ more than a dozen works on European and American history, has essayed the task of evaluating the present and the postwar world...
...The author is sure that our neutrality legislation was "ignoble" and that we were muddled "until Japan came to our aid by clarifying the issue...
...Becker knows the answer to that one: War and unemployment...
...Obviously, to advance the "cause of human freedom" and to maintain the status quo...
...and "Can we abolish power politics and end imperialism...
...Then, "What are we fighting for...
...That's somewhat harder* but the answer seems to be in the negative...
...Roosevelt hasn't told him yet what kind of political or economic order we can have...
...is, "Not very...
...Becker's work are posed as questions...
...Prof...
...To questions about what kind of international political and economic order can we have, the Professor resorts to the mumbo-jumbo of the daily columnist...
...In fact, there is no assurance from Prof...
...Chapter 6 asks, "What kind of collectivism do we want...
...Occasionally he rises to the high philosophic level of Kaltenborn's diurnal discourses, and he reveals that he reads both the Times and PM...
...The author smiles approval on Russia and Dorothy Thompson, accepts uncritically all the available atrocity stories, damns those who "can indulge in the incredible stupidity of supposing that we were tricked into war in order to get Britain out of a mess," and correlates the Chicago Tribune and the Silver Shirts...
...Becker that the not-very-new world will even be better...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
