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BOOK REVIEWS The City of Man. Issued by: HERBERT AGAR, FRANK AYDELOTTE, G. A. BoRGESE, liERMANN BROCH, VAN WYcK BROOKS, ADA L. CoMsTocK, WILLIAM YANDELL ELLIOTT, DoROTHY CANFIELD FISHER, CHRISTIAN GAuss, OscAR JASzi, ALVIN JoHNSON, HANs KoHN, THOMAS MANN, LEWIS MUMFORD, WILLU.M ALLAN NEILSON, REINHOLD NIEBUHR, GAETANO SALVEMINI. New York: The Viking Press, 1940. Pp. 113. $1.00. This very small book is described by its publishers as the outcome of collective thinking by a group of persons profoundly concerned about the future of civilization; it states their faith and hope. Though very small, the book is important by reason of the men and women who have sponsored it; the extended examination of it which will be given here has however, quite another basis than the importance of the editors of the hook. This work must be analyzed carefully, evaluated solidly and judged with unyielding justice, for its compact thesis represents one of the most serious intellectual threats yet to be offered to western civilization. Mechanically, and logically, the book is split into three parts: the :first is a" Declaration" which contains the thesis of the sponsors of the work; the second, a " Proposal," is a detailed plan for the furthering and execution of this thesis; the third, a "Note," gives the historical genesis of the Declaration and the Proposal. The book is much more intelligible if its parts are read in reverse order. The history is a plain matter-of-fact statement of the origin of the thesis, the Proposal, smacking somewhat of the grandiose and the utopian, is yet quite clear and orderly in the plans it lays down, while the Declaration, frankly apocalyptic, concentrates much more intensely on phrasing than on clarity of thought. * * * The story of the two documents (pp. 97-113), the Declaration and the Proposal, goes back well over two years and is dated by the catastrophes suffered by democratic countries beginning with Munich in 1938. The story begins with an exchange of ideas by a small group of friends; by May, 1939, the motives and intentions of this group had been stated in the form of a memorandum. Let it be said here that those motives and intentions were of the noblest. It was proposed to institute in America a " Committee on Europe " consisting of a small number of the most prominent intellectual and political exiles from Europe and a majority of American thinkers and scientists. It was hoped that the work of the committee " would supply 653 654 BOOK REVIEWS the statesmen of a period of reconstruction with decisive material in all fields of national and international affairs," even down to such details as the relations between the churches and the state, of the family and the city, eugenics, tradition and initiative in education, with a complete willingness to go into much greater detail if it should seem beneficial. The reasons that inspired the formation of this committee were decidedly concrete. There was the actual condition of Europe, the opportunity offered to America in its possession of confidence, optimism, American scholars, and prominent European personalities. More strong, perhaps, in its motive power, was the realization that the events of the past twenty years were in great part due to the action of a misled intelligentsia. Some reparation is certainly called for; this committee was visualized as offering the intellectual elite a chance to take their proper place and do their proper work in the affairs of the world. The leading committee was to consist of not more than fifteen men to be provided with staffs of scholars and students. Though the Memorandum was circulated among friends, the work was slowed down by the outbreak of war; soon it became obvious that there were many parallel efforts being made along the same line, but, because these somewhat rival efforts were not as sweeping in their consideration of what were considered essential criteria, the work of the original Committee was continued and a letter of invitation sent out in March, 1940. This letter outlined the motives and aims of the Committee to a limited number of prospective collaborators. A meeting of the Committee was held in May, 1940, at which the name was...

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