+ Booklist 17:123 D ’20
LASKI, HAROLD JOSEPH. Political thought in England from Locke to Bentham. (Home univ. lib.) *75c (1c) Holt 320.9
20–14002
The author holds that the eighteenth century began with the revolution of 1688, that it was a period of quiet after a storm and can make little pretence to discovery, but that its stagnation was mainly on the surface and that the period was fruitful of much thought resulting in future activity. The significance of Locke—who alone in this period confronted the general problems of the modern state—of Burke, Hume, Adam Smith and their contemporaries, forms the subject matter of the book. Contents: Introduction; The principles of the revolution; Church and state; The era of stagnation; Signs of change; Burke; The foundation of economic liberalism; Bibliography and index.
Booklist 17:92 D ’20
“The method of treatment is not coldly analytical but genial and speculative. Care is taken to relate political theory to ethics; there are flashes of penetration into matters psychological; but economics receives scant consideration. To the present reviewer neglect of economics seems fatal. The truth seems to be that Mr Laski has written a conventional story, bolstered up English political mythology, and left the great muddle of so-called ‘political thought’ just about where he found it.” C: A. Beard
− + New Republic 24:303 N 17 ’20 1200w
“A really admirable little book.” F: Pollock
+ N Y Evening Post p4 N 6 ’20 1250w