THE basic aim of this book is to examine the
" vertical co• nflicts in which nations fight one another and the horizontal conflict which are ideological, political, social and economic." The vetera reader of books on current, politics will be tempted to sheer off. H will expect either a demonstration that this is a war " agaith. fascism," or alternatively that the war is a great national war in which eitra-national considerations need play no part unless they are intr5duced by naive intellectuals. Such fears are groundless M. Roussy de Sales was too acute, too well-informed, too sagacio to believe in theories which are simple to the point of bein simpliste. He knew France and America too well to ignore eithe the role of mere national feeling as such, or the confusion brough in by the influence of extra- or supra-national ideals and interests. This book has many merits, but, above all, it is not pretentious. For all his knowledge and for all the penetration of judgement that is shown in every section, M: Roussy de Sales was too good a journalist to need to impress his readers with obscure profundity. He never loses his sad lucidity of soul. The result is a book which is not merely thought-provoking but which is thought-satisfying—a much rarer merit.
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