THE GERMAN CONFLICT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23789, 7 November 1942, Page 4

THE GERMAN CONFLICT

CURRENT BOOKS

the Germans. By Emil Ludwig. Hamilton. 399 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. This long book is a history, not of Germany. But of the Germans, through whose character—“the German way of feeling, the cruel schism within the German soul which has remained unchanged throughout the ages”—Herr Ludwig designs to explain the movements of 2000 years. The “schism” he refers to is that between the German genius in science and art and the German yearning to submit to authority. Because of this craven urge, the Germans have always tended to establish, and to re-establish, political tyranny. Hitler fully answers this morbid need as "the first German to fight and suppress the spirit on behalf of the State,” whose previous masters have given it at least nonpolitical toleration. When Herr Ludwig begins to reconstruct Europe, he does not easily escape from the trap of his own thesis.

FASCISM AND AFTER

Italy. By Paolo Treves. Victor Gollancz Ltd. 128 pp. (4s 6d net.) His father’s experience and his own have given Mr Treves ample personal reason to hate fascism. His training enables him to objectify this hate in a very clear sketch of modern Italian history, the rise of Italian fascism, and the inevitable issues of fascist philosophy and policy. "Internal fascism is simply a preparation for international fascism.” In his last section Mr Treves reviews the problems of Italy’s future as those of bringing an Italy freed from her own and the Nazi slave-masters into “the fullest European collaboration.”

CHILD WELFARE

The Institutional Care of Dependent Children. By H. C. Mathew, New Zealand Council lor Educational Research. 141 pp. (65.) At present deputy superintendent of a Borstal Institution, the author has added institutional experience to other first-class qualifications in undertaking this survey, which covers “children’s homes conducted by the Protestant Churches.” Before publication, it was considered by nominated representatives of the churches concerned and in part revised in the light of their comment; but the author’s responsibility for its present form is undivided. Two critical arguments are developed from an essentially factual account of the system and its growth: that alternatives to institutionalism should be studied and tried with greater care, and that weaknesses point to the need for bet-ter-trained personnel.