Cross-Currents in Europe to-Day
by . Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1922. 12mo. vii+278 pp. $2.50.
‘NOT a thesis, but a collection of notes pertinent to the great case of Mankind vs. Chaos’— thus Professor Charles A. Beard characterizes his admirable summary, of Ihe newer documents that shed light on the dark and devious ways of European diplomacy, and of the most important events in Europe since the war. As a concise handbook Cross Currents in Europe To-day is invaluable to the serious student of international affairs. As a succinct and interesting statement of some things he badly needs to know, the book is of equal value to the ordinary reader who would like to understand why the European ships of state are rolling so violently in the ‘cross currents that Professor Beard charts for us.
As a collection of lectures, delivered at Dartmouth College, the book may perhaps be forgiven its lack of the thorough-going documentation one would otherwise expect in a volume oi this kind, where every page suggests a hundred lines of thought that one would gladly follow further. But Professor Beard has appended two excellent bibliographies, one of sources for his first three chapters of ‘Diplomatic Revelations,’ and the other of general works on European affairs. Indeed, the only serious charge against the author is his failure to provide an index.
The opening chapters treat of dealing and double-dealing before the war, among diplomats not all of whom, by any means, were in the service of the Central Powers. Professor Beard studies the gradual development of the Entente and the Triple Alliance — as many others have done before him; but he studies it in the light of the new data made available by the publication of papers that would ordinarily have been kept secret for a generation by the Russian, Austrian, German, and Belgian Foreign Offices. The revolutions in Russia, Austria, and Germany, and the consequent exposure of the archives, and the German publication of the Belgian Government’s correspondence with the British have placed at our disposal a mass of information with regard to the activities of all the Great Powers before the war, which is of the highest importance and shows none of the Governments concerned as very convinced idealists. These important documents were published in a variety of journals, here, there, and everywhere. A connected view has hitherto been difficult. Now, between the covers of one small book, Professor Beard has summed up their contents and provided, in his list of sources, chart and compass for exploring the original authorities.
The rest of the book is equally interesting and almost as important. It treats such subjects as the economic outcome of the war, the new constitutions of Europe, the Russian revolution, and the agrarian, socialist, and labor movements. There is a final chapter on ‘America and the Balance of Power,’ which furnishes food for much thought. ‘It is wise to see ourselves as our critics see us,’writes Professor Beard, ‘for it is our critics, not our friends, who will make trouble for us.’
In that spirit he has written his book. It is honest, interesting, thoughtful. It is, in short, a good book.
JOHN BAKELESS.