More Buchan

More Buchan

THE NATIONS OF TODAY. GREAT BRITAIN--Edited by John Buchan-- Houghton Miflinin--Two volumes ($5.00 each). These two books are part of the world history now being written by eminent experts, prepared by Major General Lord Edward Gleichen, edited by John Buchan.

Book I of Britain's history contains a short chapter on " an outline of British History to 1914"; the remainder is devoted to a study of the War and of conditions in the circum-bellum periods.

Book II deals with the Government of the United Kingdom, defense, economics, finance, the Labor movement, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

The first volume is little more than a history of British conduct of the War,* and it is difficult to condone the extremely sketchy piece of writing which covers more than a thousand years of history. The account of the War is ably presented and is interesting from first to last.

It is in the second volume, however, that praise is really merited. Within its 261 pages lies a wealth of enlightening information concerning present conditions in Britain. The chapter entitled The Story of British Economic Development and that on the Labor Movement are brilliant pieces of analysis forming a reliable and vivid background to the understanding of the economic and political problems with which contemporary Britons are struggling.

BLACK MAGIC--Kenneth L. Roberts-- Bobbs-Merrill ($3.00).

Black Magic is the story of Italy before and during the reign of Fascismo. It is a tale of the achievements of the black-shirted Italian legions who saved their country from Bolshevism, not of the occult and nigrescent rite of invoking devils.

It is also a story of the Bavarian Fascisti (Beer-Fascisti, as Mr. Roberts calls them) followed by two chapters of pertinent and impertinent reflections on American politics.

Mr. Roberts is a Bolshevikophobe. That is to say, he hates Bolshevism, which is not surprising. He likes the clean-cut, antibureaucratic efficiency of Fascismo. The prejudices are based not upon concrete reasoning but upon temperamental predilections. The sober, nude, crude truth is that a partisan book cannot maintain itself on nebulous foundations of sentiment. Because the author has tried to do this, his book has fallen short of being first-class.

*For the best study of the War read John Buchan's History of the Great War, four volumes, $20.00 for the set. Houghton Mifflin.