Best of
Politics

1945

The Use of Knowledge in Society


Friedrich A. Hayek - 1945
    

The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato


Karl Popper - 1945
    He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New Zealand in anticipation of the Nazi annexation of Austria the following year, and he settled in England in 1949. Before the annexation, Popper had written mainly about the philosophy of science, but from 1938 until the end of the Second World War he focused his energies on political philosophy, seeking to diagnose the intellectual origins of German and Soviet totalitarianism. The Open Society and Its Enemies was the result. In the book, Popper condemned Plato, Marx, and Hegel as "holists" and "historicists"--a holist, according to Popper, believes that individuals are formed entirely by their social groups; historicists believe that social groups evolve according to internal principles that it is the intellectual's task to uncover. Popper, by contrast, held that social affairs are unpredictable, and argued vehemently against social engineering. He also sought to shift the focus of political philosophy away from questions about who ought to rule toward questions about how to minimize the damage done by the powerful. The book was an immediate sensation, and--though it has long been criticized for its portrayals of Plato, Marx, and Hegel--it has remained a landmark on the left and right alike for its defense of freedom and the spirit of critical inquiry.

On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth


Bertrand De Jouvenel - 1945
    This development Jouvenel traces all the way back to the days of royal absolutism, which established large administrative bureaucracies and thus laid the foundation of the modern omnipotent state.On Power is an important work that Professor Angelo M. Petroni of the Luigi Einaudi Center for Research in Torino, Italy, has said is "simply a book that no serious scholar of political science or political philosophy can afford to ignore."Bertrand de Jouvenel was born in Paris in 1903; he traveled widely, becoming an astute observer of British and American institutions. Later in life, he was an author and teacher, first publishing On Power in 1945. Jouvenel died in 1987. Among his other books, besides The Ethics of Redistribution, are Sovereignty: An Inquiry into the Political Good (1957) and The Pure Theory of Politics (1963).

General Theory of Law and State


Hans Kelsen - 1945
    This classic work by the important Austrian jurist is the fullest exposition of his enormously influential pure theory of law, which includes a theory of the state. It also has an extensive appendix that discusses the pure theory in comparison with the law of nature, positivism, historical natural law, metaphysical dualism and scientific-critical philosophy. "The scope of the work is truly universal. It never loses itself in vague generalities or in unconnected fragments of thought. On the contrary, precision in the formulation of details and rigorous system are characteristic features of the exposition: only a mind fully concentrated upon that logical structure can possibly follow Kelsen's penetrating analysis. Such a mind will not shrink from the effort necessary for acquainting itself with...the pure theory of law in its more general aspects, and will then pass over to the theory of the state which ends up with a carefully worked out theory of international law." Julius Kraft, American Journal of International Law 40 (1946):496.

The First Five Years of the Communist International 2


Leon Trotsky - 1945
    The early years of the Communist International, documented in articles and speeches by one of its founding leaders.

The First Five Years of the Communist International, Vol 1


Leon Trotsky - 1945
    Lenin, as well as by Leon Trotsky. This two-volume collection contains speeches and writings by Trotsky on the struggle for working class power in the imperialist epoch, the worker-peasant alliance, the fight for national liberation, defense of the Soviet republic, and much more.Index, Annotation

Race: Science and Politics


Ruth Benedict - 1945
    

Economics of Non-Violence


J.C. Kumarappa - 1945
    

The Left Was Never Right


Quintin Hogg - 1945
    It is political polemic in the top class, and we publish it as such. At the same time it is a fearless and clear-sighted analysis of the political and national weaknesses which all but led to utter and inevitable disaster; and as such it may well mark a turning-point in our political history.Captain Hogg says, in effect "The Left have been vilifying the men of the Right for their own partisan reasons. They attack the personal and political record of the Tory Party. Very well. Let us have their record out for inspection, and compare the two. There is not a single point in the history of the last fifteen years or so, at which they were not plainly and utterly in the wrong. If there is to be talk of 'guilty men', who are to be put in the dock—the men of the Right who, whatever their mistakes, enabled the country to escape defeat or the men of the Left who did everything possible to ensure it?"This hard hitting is good to watch. There has been too much shadow sparring by ingenious fly-weights under cover of portentous Roman names. But for many readers the lasting value of Captain Hogg's book will lie in the lessons it draws from the past—lessons of value to all parties and to all citizens.

A Rising Wind


Walter Francis White - 1945