MISCELLANY

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 3

MISCELLANY

The Earth Beneath Us. By H. H. Swinnerton, C.8.E., D.Sc., Professor Emeritus, The University of Nottingham. Frederick Muller. 320 PP.

This admirable book of science for the general reader, popular in the best sense, is written by a distinguished scientist who has published many original investigations in zoology, palaeontology, geology and archaeology as well as other popular books (“The Growth of the World and of Its Inhabitants” and “Solving Earth’s Mysteries”). Professor Swinnerton here, outlines the origin of the Earth, describes the face of the Earth as the geologist sees it, and the formation of the rocks, minerals and precious stones that he finds within it, and shows us how the scientist makes deductions about the age of the earth and the climates of the past. He then proceeds to an account of living creatures and their evolution, concluding with the coming of Man and a sketch of the various prehistoric cultures. His style is lucid and his arrangement of his material skilful. A fascinating work either for browsing in or reading through, “The Earth Beneath Us” is the kind of scientific book that should be in every school and home library. In the Workshop of the Revolution. By I. N. Steinberg. Gollancz. 306 PPAs the only living survivor of Lenin’s first cabinet, in which he was Minister of Justice, Steinberg has much to say about the Russian Revolution and subsequent developments in the years 1917-21, which will interest future historians of the period, as well as all who are concerned with understanding the present monolithic totalitarian system in Russia. A member of the Left Social Revolutionary party, which split away from the Right Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks and joined the Bolshevik government, Steinberg consistently opposed the Bolshevik use of terror as a political weapon. He explains how the Social Revolutionaries derived from the Populists, the revolutionary movement which was active through most of the nineteenth century. But he distinguishes carefully between the Populist and the Bolshevik use of terror With the Populists it was always, in his view, a moral weapon; isolated assassinations of tyrants, perpetrated by men and women willing—and indeed eager—to pay the fuH penalty for their deed, were undertaken as a political protest. With the Bolsheviks it was. and has continued to be, a weapon of mass intimidation. The protests of the Social Revolutionaries at the ruthless acts of the Bolsheviks were disregarded more and more by Lenin and his associates, untH the Social Revolutionaries themselves, with Steinberg among them, finished up in the Butyrki prison in Moscow. In 1923 Steinberg finally escaped from Russia; and he now lives in the U.S.A. Illuminating as many of the incidents Steinberg describes are, his book as a whole suffers from the fact that the author stiH believes in the Revolution itself. It was only “betrayed” by the Bolsheviks. He has little perception of the cruel logic and irresistible momentum of aH revolutions, or of the psychology of all revolutionaries, whether Marxist or non-Marxist. As a critic of communism, he is weH meaning and reliable, but naive.

Wommi: Man’s Equal? By Sir Adolphe Abrahams, 0.8. E., M.D., Adviser to the British Olympic Athletic Team. Christopher Johnson. 176 pp. The main theme of this balanced and. .comprehensive discussion of feminine characteristics is that women are not men ’s equals, but a k exes .? re complementary. Sir Adolphe Abrahams is a distinguished medical man of long experience, and humane outlook. The subjects on which he offers valuable and opinions inteU . ect and emotions of “I 3111 Physical changes 5 effect xH pon the emotional life of woman, the emancipation of an ’ chHdbirth and breast-feeuing; co-edueshon and sex education, obesity and shmmmg, exercise, dress, “Marriage, Kinsey and Divorce,” contraS3S n ’ homosexuality, women and employment, and woman as delinquent XlthJ 1 ” 1 !, 1131 '- Atting such a wide 1S - paturally unable to penetrate far into any aspect of his pyST but book will he found usefu1 ’ sensible and inS atl l K e—as well as good entertainment—by a wide variety of readers. Me \r S ®t. king £. od - Christopher W * i Blustrate d. Allen and Unwin. 117 pp. A popular series of British television programmes now appears in the form of a book, which will no doubt be equally popular. Mr Mayhew travelled through Europe and Asia looking for the five'representatives of the world’s great religions who were seen on his programme. The following were ?£ os ? n: Swami Lokeswarananda, a Hindu monk who runs a hostel for poor students in the slums of Calcutta; U San Nyun, a Buddhist layman, living near Rangoon; the Rev. Isaac Levy, Rabbi of the Hampstead Synagogue; Maulana Muhammad Ali, a Moslem prayer leader living in Lahore; Father Germanus, a Franciscan friar (representing Catholicism), and the Rev. C. C. Pande, an Indian Methodist minister who supervises a leper colony in Bengal (representing Protestantism). We are told first a little about each representative, then foHows Mr Mayhew’s interview with him, in which the representative describes his religious experience and methods of worship: and each chapter closes with an anthology of quotations from his favourite Scriptures. At the end Mr Mayhew produces a tactfully inconclusive conclusion that could offend no-one, not even an atheist. The book is generously illustrated with exceHent photographs. A New Pattern for a Tired World. By Louis Bromfield. Cassell. 294 pp. When a well-known novelist enters the field of international affairs, one’s expectations that he will solve the world’s problems are not high. Mr Louis Bromfield’s book is stimulating, especiaHy in its opening chapter, which gathers together a set of excellent quotations on*foreign affairs and on America’s role in the modern world culled from the writings of statesmen and political commentators. It is also hard-hitting and cogent in its attacks on socialism and Marxian thought, and in its defence of the dynamism of American capitalism and the American way of “action without doctrine,” as D. W. Brogan has expounded it. But when it comes to Mr Bromfied’s own panacea, one is reminded* of Mr Ely Culbertson and his temporary desertion of bridge for world problems. It

is not a world-state like Mr Culbertson’s that Mr Bromfield advocates, but large blocks of States banded together because they form a balanced economic unit. How these are to be brought into effective existence is far from clear, but meanwhile Mr Bromfield spares neither the American Government nor the British Commonwealth his merciless criticisms. He may several times even be caught quite disregarding the admirable political maxims contained in the quotations from wiser men than himself in his opening chapter.

Macall’s Complete Book of Dressmaking. By Marion Corey. Macdonald and Co. 256 pp.

The title of Miss Corey’s book does not belie its contents. It is indeed a complete guide for the amateur in this subject. Miss Corey discusses the best choice of style to suit various figure types, how to adjust patterns to individual measurements, the treatment of various types of materials as well as the actual final problem of making up the dress. Here her information is very full and detailed and illustrated whenever possible by extremely clear diagrams which show every step and detail in tbe making of a garment. The instructions are clear and well written. A good deal of care has obviously gone into the preparation of this book.