Outline of International Law.Arnold Bennett Hall

Ward W. Pierson
1916 American Journal of Sociology  
REVIEWS I09 materials have been selected and arranged for this definite purpose. It is very doubtful whether this field can be generalized in such daring fashion, at least until more monographic work has been done. The volume fairly bristles with asseverations. Since so much depends upon the meaning of democracy it is unfortunate that the author could not have presented his conception in clearer terms. He appears throughout to be laboring to prove the impossibility of an abstraction. References
more » ... to the American party system are few, generally misleading, and should have been omitted. (See pp. 97, 3IOI3.) The translation is written in a labored style. The book is overburdened with footnotes; and the index is quite inadequate, containing references to names of persons only. Notwithstanding serious defects, the volume contains much that is useful. Scattered through it are illuminating bits of evidence with reference to such topics as the part taken by Jews in the progress of socialist and revolutionary parties (see pp. 258-63), the growth of national particularism in socialist parties at the expense of internationalism (see pp. i9i-96), and the conduct of German socialists during the present war (e.g., see pp. 44, 53-55, I37, I57, 224, 226, 393-99). Its truly significant contribution to the literature of the subject, however, lies in its searching criticism of the organization and control of so-called democratic parties. How far we are from anything like democratic participation and control is made painfully clear.
doi:10.1086/212590 fatcat:7fmlq5au2nfcposbejzgla5vbm