BOOKENDS

PERHAPS the most valuable instrument in the hands of the historian is "time". It is easy to censure or to praise from the safe distance of four or five decades, whereas the contemporary critic is in constant danger of blemishing his own reputation. Mr. Muir bore this in mind when he wrote this little volume on the world after the war of 1914, and he takes the precaution to temper his political prescience with such phrases as "Time alone can reveal the results," or "Whatever the outcome, it will rank among the great events of human history."

One cannot blame the author for thus covering his tracks. The war left a world so fraught with danger and complication that any prediction as to the final outcome must be, at best, speculative and qualified. Mr. Muir has, however, given a very orderly and concise review of the situation both before and after the war. He has outlined the various forces such as Nationalism and Imperialism which rushed the world headlong into the crisis of 1914 in a clear and convincing fashion. And he has gone on to show the several trends that are present in Europe today, whether for good or for ill he does not profess to know.

The most interesting chapter deals with the peace settlement at Versailles in which he says, "The most that statesmen could do was to guide and slightly to modify, the influence of forces which were beyond their control--and by which they were inevitably influenced." This quite justly exonerates the men who were responsible for the peace terms from some of the unfair censure which they have received, but it brings forth at the same time a most ominous fact. Men no longer control their destinies, instead they are at the mercy of events. Social, political, and economic forces are so complex that in themselves they defy solution. Bismarck could unify and control Germany by outwitting Napoleon III, but no man today can lay out a course for himself and hope to outwit circumstance. To elaborate this point the author cites the case of Mussolini in Italy. His contention is that if Il Duce had lived in the last century his tremendous ability coupled with the country's military strength would have allowed them to assume the leadership of Europe. Today, however, the problem presented by industry and economics prevents him from making any warlike gestures. One man is not capable of controlling the vast complexity of forces that exist in the life of a modern nation.

But in this very fact Muir sees the ways of peace. He says that the world today is a political and economic unit and he hopes that these two forces will bring about a social integration that will eliminate the possibility of war. It is this unity that makes possible the League of Nations, says Muir, and it is the League which will make possible eternal peace, if such a thing can be obtained.

Beyond these theories the book contains some excellent sketches of the men at the Peace Conference, and brief but comprehensive summaries of the several countries of the world. As an Englishman, the author is primarily interested in Great Britain and his observations on the disintegration of the Empire are at once free from bias and tremendously interesting.