United Kingdom Books

Engaging and thoughtful, a fascinating look at post-reformation England and the means by which a common discourse was used by different groups for different purposes. The author provides reflections on much more in the 700+ pages; all are worth reading. Highly recommended for anyone interested in vital, often ignored, dynamics in the the birthing of the modern world.

Dennis R. Hidalgo

Thomas Bender, ed. The Antislavery Debate

What can a historian do when there is not enough empirical evidence to produce a quantitative and comprehensively thesis for a social historical problem that defies psychological scrutiny? David Brion Davis opted for an answer that satisfies cynic assumptions with circumstantial evidences. Davis argues that the strength of abolitionism in early industrial Britain derived from its susceptibility to the needs of the dominant political elite. It was particularly influenced by this new bourgeoisie capitalist class' modes of industrial discipline. Antislavery main, and unconscious, purpose was to desensitize English society to the newer forms of oppression evident in the increasing wage labor. His context of conceptual reference appears to flow from Marxism and Freudian thought: the rise of an oppressing bourgeoisie driven by its hidden and selfish Id. To Thomas Haskell this idea of unconscious "self-deception" and motivation by class interests is not convincing. For him, it is impossible for the historian to bring concrete evidence to bear, which will distinguish between unconscious intention and unintended consequences. Following what appears to be a more objective goal, Haskell intends to draw a straighter line between the rise of the market economy and the rise of the abolitionist movement in 1750s. In doing so he moves from a quasi-Freudian historical analysis to an Ericsonian: that of a cognitive change of behavior. For Haskell capitalist and market expansion broaden social perception that in turn promoted moral responsibility. The most powerful catalyst in this process of change was the "intensification of market discipline, and the penetration of that discipline into spheres of life previously untouched by it." To this Davis decries Haskell approach for being more economic deterministic than a rationalistic. To this, John Ashworth adds that Haskell is not able to follow up the empirical inclinations of his Davis' critic since he does not supply enough evidence to support his argument. Indeed, his only example of moral switch to Antislavery is the Quaker John Woolman. Without knowing Haskell is caught in one of the most frustrating traps of an empirical driven discipline. His response is that he is not looking for a comprehensive societal change but for a mechanism that might have caused the change. The problems this approach is the usefulness of such "found" mechanism if there is no proof that the mechanism was indeed used sufficiently as to merit its historical validity. Nevertheless, Haskell bottom line is his desire to demonstrate that abolitionists rationally attached the worst evil of their times. Davis and Ashworth's response to Haskell's premise is that wage labor could have been also attacked and was not. Ashworth spend most of his time criticizing Haskell and throwing some bits toward Davis. Yet he is also able to provide an interesting proposition. First, he asserts Davis' starting point as the place to launch the investigation: the emergence of a dominant class. This would lead us to the disregarding of wage labor abuses and protected interests. But instead of moving completely toward Davis, he detours into the cultural notion of family and its effect on productivity. The simple conclusion, thus, is that since slavery, through its detrimental effect on family and society, slowed the pace of economic advance, "it is not surprising that to more people than ever before it seemed an unmitigated evil." Haskell response to this is that these family values could have been in existence long before the abolitionist movement, thus, rendering useless in the debate. Ashworth's last answer is that the production ethos has a long family history, it was the innovation brought by master-wage earner relationship that transformed the view of family into a more entrepreneurial project. Clearly this debate is provocative, but narrowly conceived, as is mainly centered around Marxist concepts of history, evasive evidences and a revival of neo-Whiggists approaches. Very little criticism could be employed against the authors since they exhausted most of it that could be applicable to their line of argument. However, an also important critique to a combine look at the arguments presented may be the dearth of sociological and cultural approaches that may enhance the historical view that as historians we are trying to discover.

In "Appeasement and All Souls," Sidney Aster attempts to reverse not just the title but the verdict of A.L.Rowse in "All Souls and Appeasement." Rowse alleged that the plotters of the Munich Pact were a group of incompetent intellectuals in the orbit of his Oxford college.

Aster fails on every count.

His contention is that, in addition to the older Fellows of All Souls who were appeasers, there was a younger group who wanted to stand up to Hitler, Mussolini and Japan. His evidence is "Salter's Soviet," formally the All Souls Foreign Affairs Group, organized by Arthur Salter. It met 15 times in 1937-8 and included several anti-appeasers, including Rowse, Gilbert Murray, Harold Nicholson, B.H. Liddell-Hart and Harold Macmillan.

The record shows these were not serious men. "Appeasement and All Souls" is primarily a collection of letters, memorandums and diary entries, with minimal commentary and annotation by Aster.

Salter's stated goal was to encompass the range of English (or at least, All Souls) elite opinion, except for the "extreme Right and extreme Left." Supposedly, Salter himself was anti-Government and anti-appeasement, if not as stridently as Rowse.

However, this is hard to believe, because he loaded up the group with fanatical pacifists. One, Lord Allen of Hurtwood, was named chairman, allegedly because of his masterly methods of conducting meetings.

This was, on the face of it, crazy. If you are aiming to move public opinion to a more forceful policy, you don't weight down your pressure group with appeasers, disarmers and League of Nations zealots like Lionel Curtis and Lord Allen. Especially not Allen.

Allen was fatuous, treacherous and indefatigable. Nearly half the book is comprised of his position papers (repetitive but relentless) in favor of giving Hitler what he wanted -- at one point, enunciating "peace at any price." As chairman, he tabled these papers. Of course the discussions were consumed with refuting Allen, so they never got around to opposing appeasement. Allen never tabled a paper for discussion that was critical of Chamberlain.

Had Salter and the rest really meant to challenge the government, they would either have thrown Allen and Curtis overboard; or seceded and formed a new anti-appeasement group.

One purpose of the group was to clear the minds of these academics about contentious issues. Another was, possibly, to issue a position paper. Czechoslovakia was the big issue, but the group never could decide what it thought about Czechoslovakia -- except Allen, who could not wait to throw the Czechs to Hitler's wolves. He was quite clear about the immorality of it; he spoke out again and again against morality.

In early 1938, the group nearly made up its mind that if the British government should ever do anything, its naval power argued for applying force in Spain, not central Europe. However, by the time they almost girded themselves up to bravely indite a letter to The Times, Franco was about to batter down the defenses of Barcelona, so they decided better not.

There is nothing good to say about Chamberlain and Halifax, but even they were not as feckless as these supposed stalwarts for democracy, who could not even stand up to an old, sick pacifist like Allen. How could anybody imagine they would stand up to Hitler?

This is a specialist book (one of three valuable records of English political thought published in the Camden Fifth Series, but the least valuable of the three), and the skimpy annotation will leave any reader not already deeply knowledgeable about Europe in the `30s mystified. It is worth reading (if not worth $90) because it shows how deep the rot had set in in England. Parallels to American politics in the 21st century will present themselves on every other page.

If you need two books to sum up the history of the British Conservative Party, the ones to get are this one by Ramsden and E.H.H. Green's "The Crisis of Conservatism 1880-1914". Forget about Robert Blake, he's out of date and his work looks increasingly pompous and thin with the passage of time. Ramsden is very astute in his judgements, and if there is one little quibble it is with his assessment that Baldwin and Chamberlain were somehow "good eggs" while Churchill was a "bad egg". This may be true in the very narrow sense of who looked after the Conservative Party's interests when the party was in power, but surely what counts is who did most for the country and for the free world. Neither Baldwin nor Chamberlain, nor other deadbeats like Rab Butler, would have risen to the occasion in 1940. Churchill did. It matters not one jot that the Conservative Party's fortunes declined temporarily as a result.

I have opportunity to read the last issue, and I am so happy for new issue becouse I as proffesor of the economics will learn the applied economics from the best teachers of the world. Thank you for the gift Ms.Alan Grifiths and Ms.Stuart Wall.

This book serves as an excellent 'handbook' for teacher appraisal. It is based on the British appraisal system yet it can be effectively used in any system as it focuses on the professional development of teachers. The information is presented in a clear, concise manner and although the British teacher appraisal regulations are quoted extensively throughout the book it is done in a manner which adds rather than detracts from the text.

The activities and forms in the book serve as a good stimulator for appraisal training. This book serves as an excellent foundation for the implementation of teacher appraisal using staff development as its central focus. It can also double as an extremely good training manual.

For anyone who is interested in golf course architecture, this book is a must for your library. Contains a complete index (a continuous work-in-process) of architects and their courses. Essentially every course in the world (including those which are no longer in existance), is listed including its location, date of orgin and the architects who created it also the provider of any known substantial (professional) renovation work. It must take a tremendous effort for the authors to keep this book up to date. I hope the fact that this book is no longer in print indicates that the authors are hard at work. If you do not have a copy find one, if you have to go the the library and photocopy theirs (but bring a stack of dimes its very long).

The overall view of the book is considered to be an excellence book.
There are a few projects that need to have drawing documentation and in my preferences drawings could be bigger but they are readable.
The photographs in this book are excellent representation of the essence of the projects under the study cases. Perhaps the narratives could include deeper conclusions of the architect's ideas-to explain the arrival of their conclusions.

This is a wonderful book! I bought the video from Borders, (39.99) and I LOVED it! Of course, to follow up, I had to but the book. There are two versions of this book, the telivision companion, which I prefer since it has better pictures, and more pictures in color. Stella Tillyard did a fabulous job of writing this book! This edition, has pictures from the video series, and contains the text telling the stories of the Lennox sisters, their passions, deceptions and timless love for one another. I can't get enough of this book! If you have not seen this video, buy it! I promise you will watch it again and again! The costumes are fabulous, and the actors LOOK like the real people! It is made by the BBC. I would buy both versions of the books as well. ajw@marinternet.com

Five stars for content, but not this particular edition's print quality.

This version of the book looks like it was printed on a photocopy machine, especially the photos. They are on paper, and grainy, not like the glossy plates of the original publisher. At this price, this should be a much better reproduction than it is.

I don't recommend this version, unless you just can't find an original printing at a similar price, or prefer this being a new and less fragile copy. I traded this for other books, and found a used copy.

Used copies can be a bit hard to find, and pricey. I lucked onto a good condition 1940 second printing with jacket, two years ago for $25. Watch all the used book sources to find a copy in your budget.

You can't be a BG fan without this book. It only relates his life up through 1938, since it was published in '39. It's a shame he didn't write later and could tell more.

I was a bit surprised how humble and occaisionally self-deprecating he can be here. I think he really meant this to be a true account of his life; however, it is basic in most details.