Review of the Book:

Political Thought: The European Tradition
by J. P. Mayer, and collaborators

Robert Clancy

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, May-June 1940. Political Thought: The European Tradition, by J. P. Mayer, and collaborators. The Viking Press, New York. 1939]

In an Introduction to this book, R.H. Tawney says, "Man, when history first meets him, is a social animal. Political thought is the epitome of his experience of life in society." Mr. Mayer's book purports to be a review of that political thought which the Western mind has moulded and by which it has been moulded. He has attempted to bring together the factors in the European tradition so that it presents a coherent flow. Thus, although he is of the "historical" school, he shows some originality in evaluating.

Our political heritage is traced back to Greece, where democracy had its first trial, and flowered in free thought. The transmission of the Greek idea through Rome, and the transformation of both traditions through Christianity is noted. The author puts emphasis on the slavery of ancient Rome as the decisive factor in her decline and fall. He recognizes that the division of society into landed proprietors and serfs was the ruin of Rome.

During the barbarian invasions, when Roman and Germanic ideas were blending, the feudal system arose as an outcome of the Roman idea of private property in land, and the German tradition of communal ownership of land. Lordship was the basis of the Medieval State, which could hardly yet be called a State.

In his discussion of modern political thought and practice, Mr. Mayer, in collaboration with others, devotes a chapter to each nation, offering a survey of that country from the Renaissance to the present.

The chapter on Britain is by R.H.S. Grossman. He sees many contradictions in British political thought a theoretical individualism is contrasted with an actual dependence on conventions and traditions. Britain today is blindly groping for a policy. Even the vague policy of liberalism has collapsed, and now the country stands in need of a clear-cut political philosophy. With England dominated by a landed class, as the author admits, and vainly attempting to reconcile this with democracy and freedom, it is small wonder that Britain is floundering.

The political thought of France seems to the author (E. Kohn-Bramstedt) more unified and clear-cut. Rationalism has prevailed in that country in theory and practice, and even in the oft-recurring crises, it is the dominant theme.

The job of surveying Germany's political thought is, according Mayer, "fraught with difficulties." It is the story of a people who have ranged from tribe to empire, who have presented conflicting traditions, who have produced formidable theoreticians as well as political structures, and whose latest development of Kultur and the State is frightening. This chapter was written at the time of the Czechoslovakia crisis, which in a foreboding footnote by the author, is a crisis "whose final outcome despite the Munich agreement ... may render this whole book an Epilogue to a culture which is passing away."

In the chapter on Italy, by C.J.S. Sprigge, Mussolini's Fascism is regarded as different from the dictatorship of his axis partner. It "ranges from the enforcement of strict obedience to the most smilingly benign indulgence." It is paternalism.

America is included in the book, as being part of the European tradition. It was the aim of the American settlers, says P. Kecsmeti, author of this chapter, to build a society free from the imperfections of Europe. But the point of departure was the European tradition, and many of the imperfections remained. The New Deal is the outcome of the American tradition, which the author views as not being revolutionary. In his conception, New Deal government is to stand between all classes and mediate for the common good.

The narrowness of the historical approach to social philosophy is seen in the author's treatment of Henry George. He misunderstands George as "the most original contributor to socialistic thought in America," and finds that he fits into the American agrarian tradition. He cannot see any larger implications in the Georgeist philosophy than as the passing product of an era.

The survey of modern countries closes with Russia. Perhaps from a historical standpoint this is the correct thing to do, as the Bolshevist dictatorship is one of the most recent large-scale undertakings in applying a political and social theory. The Russian example seems to Mr. Mayer to hold the greatest portent for the future. Either it will become terrorism or it will point the way toward a millenium. "The distant future" holds the answer. Events these days are deciding things rather quickly. We may not have to wait too long for an answer to Mr. Mayer's speculations.

In the Epilogue, Mr. Mayer reiterates the principles upon which the European tradition is founded, and which has stood the test of two thousand years principles which have often been abandoned, but which constantly recur: "Freedom of thought and doctrine; the dignity of the individual; a human responsibility to society and the State."