A Plea for Man by Mario M. Rossi (review)

REVIEWS OF BOOKS $75 would broaden thebasis ofstudy andjudgment onevents, refuse toconsider European history alone butlook atthewider horizons east andwest beyond it, andtakeaccount oftherelative decline of Europe in theworld.Withthis onemayagree, provided onedoes notproject thepresent intothepast. For therewasa western European civilization witha history worthyof study, however we mayperiodize it. Perhaps we geta betterviewof Europe asa whole, including bothBritain andRussia, fromacross theAtlantic. ButProfessor Barraclough isinclined tooverestimate theoriginality ofNorth American civilization(SouthAmericadoesnot comeinto the picture), in comparison withitsdebt toandkinship withthatofEurope. Yetthebook isa stimulating andscholarly one, providing foodforthought anddiscussion by scholars and students alike. R. FLENLEY Wirrall, Cheshire, England A Plea)•orMan. By MARIO M. Rossi. Edinburgh: At the University Press [Toronto: Thomas Nelson andSons(Canada)Limited]. 1956.Pp. viii, 167. $2.25. IN thistightlyreasoned essay theItalianphilosopher-author attacks modem historical writingand historicism as essential elements in the prevailing atmosphere ofmoral relativism andpolitical irresponsibility. Having asked the question, "Does History Happen?" heconcludes that"History does nothappen, yetthehistorian makes it happen--for hisreader." In other words thehistorian's picture of history isrelative to hisownideas andexperience ratherthanan exposition ofindisputable factual patterns. In consequence history, along with psychology andmodem philosophy, hascontributed basically to the undermining ofbeliefin fixedstandards of action. Signor Bossi sees biography, thestudy of eachmanasa unityor"destiny," asfarmorerealistic andsignificant thangeneral history, forhereinman's true freedom of will, his commandof reason, and his real relation to absolute standards arefullyrevealed andpreserved. The "absolute standards" arepresumably Christian standards, though thisis nowhere dearlybrought out,nor arethestandards defined. Havingattacked relativism throughout, it isstrange to seetheauthorendhisdiscussion of biography by claiming thatoneof the values ofthisformof study maybeto discourage usfrom"preaching ourown standards asultimatetruth."If he means asagainst God'sWord,andthereis yet a relative understanding of thatWordby eachindividual, howis oneto escape fromrelativism bytheroute whichhesuggests? RICHARD M. SAmm>•.RS TheUniversity of Toronto An Historian's World: Selections from the Correspondence o[ JohnFranklin Jameson. Editedby E•.IZa•WTH DONNAN, andLwoF. SToc•:. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. 1956.Pp. xii, 382. $6.00. As one of the founders and later President of the American Historical Association, aseditor of the American Historical Review from its start in 1895 ...