Evening star., 1939-04-09
Europe on the Eve
By Frederick L. Schuman. Ne1D
York.: Alfred A. KnOpf.

During the next century there
will be many thousands of volumes
on the history of Europe since 1882.
1t is a fascinating, involved, mo-
mentous, epic story-the story OF
what may prove the most momen-
tous episode in the history of West
ern civilization. During this period
have been mobilized the forces
military, diplomatic and economic
for the life-and-death struggle be-
tween two antagonistic concepts of
society and two irreconcilable phil
osophies of life.
Now Europe is ION the eve"-a
black, lightning-streaked eve whose
thunders rolling over the Pyrenees,
the Sudeten Mountains and the
waste Sahara may be portents OF
the most destructive storm of war
the modern world has known. But
even yet it is not too late if Europe
at the last moment can come to
her senses.
The episodes of diplomacy and
war untangled and co-ordinated in
this book constitute well-nigh un-
bellevable Story-a story of cynic-
ISM ruthlessness, stupidity, double
dealing, thievery and hate to which
parallel is hardly to be found in
all the past history of the world.
For six years we have been reading
of these developments in the daily
papers with sensation succeeding
sensation until nothing is very SEN
sational any more.
We have all read of these as iso-
lated Observation-Disclosures, Spain,
Austria, the murders of the Aus
trian Chancellor Dolfuss and the
Yugoslavian monarch Alexander,
the love affairs of Carol of Rumania
and Edward of England, the rising
tides of anti-Semitism, the unbe-
lievable effrontry of the German
dictator, the seeming failure OF
France, England and Russia to full
fill their obligations to Czecho-Slo-
vakia. the war in China, purges in
Russia. the Stavinsky swindle, the
New Deal In this volume they are
gathered together into a co-ordi-
mated pattern. There is an enor-
nous wealth of detail-so much
that it becomes difficult to follow at
times. But the author has put the
breath of life into the whole-espe-
cially through his device of charm
ing pen portraits of such principal
actors as Hitler, Mussolini, the EN-
peror of Ethiopia. Blum and Ba-
thou Anthony Eden and Stanley
Baldwin, Goering and Chamberlain
1t is book which anybody wish
ing clear understanding of the
present momentous trends in worlc
affairs cannot afford to neglect. Anc
it is book to which the thousands
of authors of the thousands o1
books bound to be written on the
same subject in the course of g
couple of generations are bound tc
turn. 1t will save them an infinite
amount of labor in dusty newspa.
per files.
DR.. Schuman is a professor oi
political science at Williams College
With broad background of schol-
arship he attempts to analyze as
we'll as record the weird happenings
of the last six years-delving into
behavioristic and psychoanalytical
psychology as we'll as into the
sciences" of diplomacy and politics
for rational explanations of devel-
opments which have been well-nigh
inexplicable to naive American
newspaper readers. Such a develop
ment, for example, as the Stain
purge is made to appear quite rea-
sonable There is never any ques-
ton as to the direction of Dr. Schu-
mans sympathies. One is loath tc
believe that the men who hold the
reins of the British Empire are quite
so stupidity self-seeking, double
dealing and gullible as he paints
them. If they are the Lord help
this poor Western civilization in
the night of storm and terror which
may follow the "eve." T. R. H.