The New Leader Book Page
CASTELAR, PAUL
The New Leader Book Page Croce as Political Man By PAUL CASTELAR GERMANY AND EUROPE A Spiritual Distention. Translated by Vincent Sheean. Itandvm //»¦•»« $1 26 1 AM net on* to debate...
...He tells you how to pronounce the hard words (Magdalen College, pronounce Maudlin...
...A factor in this distention has been th* doctrine of a chosen snd "intrinsically superior" race— trtceabl* to that hero of the Nazi pantheon, Fichu— and th* acceptance of th* all-powerful amoral state of Hegel and Pichte...
...Psychologically, this is a disingenuous apologia for the Germanic roots of his philosophy and for his past record...
...It it a confuting and slightly maddening document, revealing Croce the philosopher profoundly disoriented by Croce th* political man—shockingly unaware of the true nature of totalitarianism and setting up a false distinction between the Italian brand ss "not his-torial" and "clownlike" and the German product as "inevitable," "historical," and growing out of the nstionsl history and character...
...1944...
...T is only with thete facts jn mind that one can look into Croce' latest book—a small sheaf of four etsays pretentiously titled "Germany snd Europe: a Spiritual Dissension...
...Stated briefly, Croce's thesis is thst Germany has beta outside the stream ef classical Green-Reman culture aad that a spiritual distention has therefore* always existod between Germany sad Europe...
...Some of th* adventure is exciting, some not l.anny Budd's sppesl is simple and direct...
...You hav* read some of their utterances, I suppose...
...who,suffers (he exquisite inconvenience of being pestered with the advances of countesses...
...In my thoughts I compare myself to a man driving three horses...
...Like the hero of an adventure comic strip, he reslizes oar dresms, in all their nnrelieved childishness...
...that Is my New D«al group, backed by organised labor and its sympathizers, the Intellectuals...
...Of course, it is difficult to tell whether Upton Sinclair plans to be taken seriously as a novelist...
...As Governor Smith used U say: Let's lock in the little black book...
...The secot.d it much older, and inclined to be mulish...
...that is my block of Southern states...
...By Upton Sinclair...
...Croce was * member of Giolitti'a cabinet (the same (Tiolitti who has been called by ons historian "the true evangelist of Fascism") snd therefoie a party to its policy of plannedico' ruption and its support of Fascist gangsterism against reformist Socialism...
...The adventures involved in this psrtieulsr episode of Lenny's story sre doubtless much like his previous adventureu (I have not read the other books in the series...
...Those states ar* run by a land-owning aristocracy, and by new industrialist* who are still in the pr«-labor-union stags ef political thinking...
...He has gone on record against political and economic reform until the people of Italy have been instructed in the "habit of freedom"—which is like skying that children should not be permitted to breathe until they have learned to sing—snd analyzed the defeat in Spain en that basis...
...Croce himself hat on several occesions expressed his fear of social change, of mass movements, of "radicals...
...who loves learning and art without falling into pedantry or unseemly intensity...
...Sinclair's elementary lessons in practical politic...
...Whatever "philosophical" reservations he might have had, Croce still went along with Italian reaction, firmly believing and expretting the conviction thst the fall of the Mussolini cabinet would lie a tragedy for Italy...
...Or perhaps we should damn th* political Croc* with th* faint excuse St...
...My Roman Catholic charger...
...One of the Lanny Budd books was swsrded the Pulitzer Prize...
...about It The most sensational example of statesmanship with which th* unfortunate Mr...
...Y. Timet, 28...
...On* of th* mor* depressing minor snglet of thi* book is th* fart that w* are forced to hear from th* President'* own mouth th* shrewd and cynical arguments of expediency which have been used by hi* supporters to Justify soma of his "mysterious" acts or failures to act and that it is precisely these alibi* which overwhelm Lanny with the feeling that he is in the pretence of greatness...
...if any on* of them balks, th* troika comes to a halt...
...Croce was able to ssy that he "preferred Fascism to disorder," which is not far from what Bergamini, his fellow Liberal, was writing in the Giornale d'ltalia when the Fascist movement seemed on the verge of collapse in '21: "The preuature crisis of Fascism is very harmful, a.id its immediate disintegration would be jven more so . . . since it would leave the (round open for unfettered democracy...
...He tells ut that National Socialism hat mad* "beasts" of th* Germans, but that we must treat them with sweet reasonableness (moving towards "collaboration," "indulgence," and "conciliation") and not repeat the humiliations of Versailles— a tr*aty which we have seen wat more Inept than cruel, and positively humane when compared to St, Germain, which did not make beasts ef the Austrian...
...Th* poor, whether white or black, ar* largely disfranchised by the poll tax...
...This volume takes Lanny through 1937 and 1938, during the final days before the fight began in earnest...
...who sits among the men who run things but keeps his ideals...
...Having stepped forward with one foot, Croce atop* back with the other, assuming the undignified stance of an arrest* split For it is also his contention that the Nssis and their Ideology are not typical of German civilization...
...I cannot go anywhere unless I can persuade th* three hoi«e« to take ma...
...There is indsed a kind of reslity about the smoke-filled rooms of history...
...It is on* thing te se-quiesce in a necessary sacrifice of principle to expediency...
...Augustine had for • ataline . . . "who loved not hit own villainiet but something else which gave him th* motive for committing them...
...But the blsnd smugness with which he includes himself in the roster of the St...
...II Duce allowed Croce to write his books on sn elysian "liberty" and tolerated the publication of "Critiea' not only out of vanity and to attract tourists but because there is a grea»,jr affinity between Croce's liberalism and...
...Later on, Croce ssw the error of his ' ways, but he continued to eat Fascism's bread—Sslvemini, Borgese, Toscanini, *hd a host of others went into voluntary exile—and like a cuckoo to lay his eggs in the Fascist nest...
...they want to gallop ail the time, and I have to put a curb-hit in that horse'a mouth...
...I| this a tentplt ef Hegelian diatactte* ei has th* eminently hnmerka* Crete gone rolling in th* hay to give u* a satire on the trowing mountain af what-to-do-with-G«rmany literature...
...and he becomes Secret Agent Number 103, making use of his contacts in the F.uropean world of high life and high crime to list the President know the truth: that the Spanish Loyalists needed arms, that there wat a fascist movement in France, that the British upper class was trying to appease the fascists, and such other facts as a man in the President's position could not be expected to know ("He, the President, complained that the State Department could hardly be ignorant of these intrigues, and wondered what those well-bred young gentlemen did with such information when they got it...
...Their decisions can actually kill and maim, But after all they* ar* merely among the minor instruments of the larger forces, operating with not much more understanding than you or I. It should be remembered, in reading this book or in reading 'the books of our fabulous foreign correspondents, thst there is no inside information in, for instance, War and Peace...
...YoiJ remember Lanny Budd, your liberal dream man...
...Ueorget who brought Mussolini low must be exploded...
...I have...
...Perhaps Croce's "historical" past should b* forgotten, along with these four unimpressive essays...
...July '44), Mussolini's direct complicity in the Matteotti murder wss known to - the philosopher of liberty...
...You get the feeling of watching a play of puppets who, because they seem to mak< some of the minor decisions, manage to'deceive even themselves into thinking (hat they are in control...
...Salvemini, in hit polemic "L'Anti-iascismo monarchico e conservators si i tuicideto" (ftolta Libera, September 36, IMS) demcnttrated that Italian Liberalism is in effect synjnymous with bourgeois reaction...
...They exist...
...You will consider my naming it confidential, please...
...What doubts come into his mind arc laid to rest by a few words from the President His fighting morsle is never impaired...
...who moves with exact ease in all circles, even in ours, and is for the good cause by choice alone, not for our suspect and hidden reasons;—who is all that Upton Sinclair thinks money can buy...
...And then my third horse, a nervous and skittish horse which I seldom dare to mention by name...
...they had sjch a hitch-up in old-time Russia—a troika...
...Right now they are finding on* in th* 'court-packing' program...
...Again, Croce continued to vote* with the Fascists even after, a Herbert L. Matthews unwittingly proved (.V...
...he loses the significant moral fsct: that it is not simple, that the man killed is almost never the thing fought for...
...It is worth repeating her* a* an exampl* of Mr...
...Croce, however, Is also a political tnan who, with his cronies in the non-liberal Liberal Party, has done much to turn Italy's temporary agony into permanent despair...
...A friend introduces him to President Roosevelt ("You two are made for each other...
...It is another thing to shout "Hallelujah...
...Who is rich but not compromised...
...Lanny'* evasion is a popular one, and 1 believe these books are popular, but lanny suffers the penalty of his virtue: it requires a good deal of innocence to care what happens to him...
...would expose Ban«ls down at another helping of pie-lo-the-skr...
...Doesn't that make everything just clear...
...but he, too, forgets that th* courts hav* never finally confirmed hi* divorce from Communist totalitarianism, so there It no embaratimtat in hit celebration of a newfound master Truly, it is a fine pair Random House has bedded down under the covers of sn IS page book...
...So close is the relationship between the great man and his agent that it is actually Lanny who writes most of the President's speech about "quarantining the aggressors...
...Sir Alexander Cadogan, pronounced Caduggsn), managing at once to improve your mind and to c.inve...
...The things that concern him are indeed lie thiigs that should concern him: morality, freedom, the underdog—but in his moral preoccupatio...
...Fascism than meets the rapturous -ye...
...Itandvm //»¦•»« $1 26 1 AM net on* to debate philosophy with Signor Benedetto Croce, or with janybody else for that matter, although I resent his stuffy representation of history aa a personal cult: there are others better equipped to pull his hat down over his ears in controversy...
...He can always recognize the enemy, and when he hss recognized him he ran always act in the direction of destroying him...
...Sinclair hat come a long way indeed...
...He is patiently informative...
...It is th* inside story of everything and the truth about nothing...
...Our illusions become mjre snd more ryniesl, l*s* and lea* pleasant bet they still serv* th* primary function of helping a* t* evade th* obligation ¦» understand...
...The de-tsils are not signiflcsnt...
...therefore, th* majority of congi cHsnirn and senators from th* South are always looking for a reason to desert the New Deal...
...For good or bad, this problem colors the minds of serious snd sensitive people today, and it is no longer possible to believe in a story-book picture of our time...
...Xew York: The Viking Press...
...To read this book is like reading back issues of I'M: the facts sre correct, but it is journalism and not history...
...Story-Book History • y ROIfftT S. w4sjhow PRESIDENTIAL AG EXT...
...His primary aim is apparently educational...
...On the political plane, I can meet the Sage of Abruzzo no matter how thoroughly he barricades himself behind a phony Jiistorieism ami a philosophical "liberty" which any I.W.W...
...One of these horses is young and wild...
...Of course, Mr...
...As s Strieus contribution to the discussion of postwar problems, "Germany and Europe" ranks just a few cuts higher than Vincent Sheeaa's hero-worshlpful and i ather amazing introduction, Sheesn st Wast admits his incompetence by quoting generously from the Encyclopedia Britannic...
...Croce it not one to remonstrate with the courts of events, no matter what they portend, for after all they are "History" and who can quarrel with "Hirtory"— even if it leads to the slow strangulation of decency under Fascism...
...Roosevelt has been saddled by his admirer has already been quoted in Time magazine, probably for motives not connected with literary criticism...
...And like the hero of one of the more "serious" comic strips, he is taken up with polities, but politics conceived as s clean fight between good and evil...
...3.00...
...The idealistic Mr...
...Thst rsn only mesn that this is the way we like to have our history written: with good intentions, with glsmor, and without responsibility...
...President...
...the impression that phonetic eccentricities are a part of the atmosphere of culture and refinement...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 35
