World Federation
Shafer, Boyd C.
World Federation The Commonwealth of Man, by Frederick L. Schuman. Knopf. 494 pp. $5. Reviewed by Boyd C. Shafer SCHUMAN'S Commonwealth of Man is a hard hitting and provocative attack upon the...
...Possibly his book is misnamed...
...In our time he does not believe that federalism can develop either Myth or an Elite, or that our societies can adapt...
...Each he discards as unworkable in our time...
...The contemporary trial of collective security he blasts as an attempt to establish peace through war...
...With Schuman's basic pessimism most informed men will agree, though they may not feel the need of his spectacular display of psychoanalysis and anthropology, or agree with his views concerning human nature or with his bitter attacks upon morality as a guide in international relations...
...Schuman might strengthen his case if he forgot Freud and Frazer as well as sin and virtue in order to explain more fully what he does state—that no international organization will keep the peace unless it directly operates upon the hopes and fears of people, of individuals...
...Reviewed by Boyd C. Shafer SCHUMAN'S Commonwealth of Man is a hard hitting and provocative attack upon the collective security practiced by the League of Nations and currently attempted by the United Nations...
...Whether you agree or disagree, he forces you to think...
...With these preconceptions Schuman can scarcely look with favor upon most of man's past and present endeavors to create peace...
...Schuman sees a commonwealth, or rather a federation of men, as highly desirable, essential to mankind's survival but, with the present shape of man and society, both impractical and improbable...
...Psychoanalysis works for individuals, but societies are not individuals...
...But any discussion of politics by Schuman is worth the money...
...It does not achieve a fresh approach, as the jacket blurb claims, for its conceptions of human nature are at least as old as the 16th Century, and if it supports any commonwealth, it is that of the federalists who are rooted to the 18th Century...
...Relying upon Freudian psychology as well as the politics of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Alexander Hamilton, he sees man as something of a beast—among other things, ungrateful, fickle, timid, self-interested, vindictive, rapacious...
...One by one he describes the ways men have tried and failed: universal states and sacred empires, caesar-ism and treason, bureaucratic agencies and collective security...
...Human nature may be beastly competitive or it may be saintly cooperative, depending upon social and economic conditions...
...Schuman presents his own solution, federalism, with little hope...
...And even Schuman puts forth moral values, both when he denies their applicability, and when he himself seeks peace and a commonwealth of man...
...He declares that peace requires global government and government requires Myth, Authority, Adaptation, and an Elite...
Vol. 17 • April 1953 • No. 4
