History Horsed*

History Horsed*

1066 AND ALL THAT--W. C. Sellar & R. J. Yeatman--Dutton ($1.75).

"Histories have previously been written with the object of exalting their authors. The object of this history is to console the reader. No other history does this." British Authors Sellar & Yeatman have written, in 1066 And All That, a more than consoling parody of English history, from Caesar's conquest of Britain to the end of all things, when, the U. S. being "clearly top nation . . . History came to an end."

Example of Authors Sellar & Yeatman's consoling style: "Nelson was one of England's most naval officers, and despised weak commands. At one battle when he was told that his Admiral-in-Chief had ordered him to cease fire, he put the telephone under his blind arm and exclaimed in disgust: 'Kiss me, Hardy!' "

Pithy, 1066 And All That makes short shift of the late Great War and its causes: "King Edward's new policy of peace was very successful and culminated in the Great War to End War. This pacific and inevitable struggle was undertaken in the reign of His Good and memorable Majesty King George V and it was the cause of nowadays and the end of History.

"The Great War was between Germany and America and was thus fought in Belgium, one of the chief causes being the murder of the Austrian Duke of Sarajevo by a murderer in Serbia.

"There were many other Causes of the Great War, such as:

"1. German governesses, a wave of whom penetrated Kensington in King Edward's reign and openly said that Germany ought to be top nation, and

"2. The Kaiser who sent a telegram consisting entirely of ems to one of the memorable Boerwar leaders."

U. S. Fire Escape?

AMERICA'S WAY OUT--Norman Thomas--Macmillan ($2.50).

Norman Thomas, No. 1 U. S. Socialist, here tells the U. S. what it must do to be saved. He thinks the U. S. needs a fire escape, that Socialism is the best available. America's Way Out, in view of Author Thomas' position, may be regarded as almost an official Socialist pronouncement.

Strictures. With much of Thomas' general criticism of the U. S. scene even tycoons may agree. Says Thomas: "The whole [economic] system is planless and extremely chaotic. . . . Employers have not even been able to forecast the market for their own products or prevent recurring depression. ... In sum total this planless, wasteful profit system gives us a new type of misery: poverty and unemployment in the midst of potential plenty."

All except Communists will agree with his animadversions on Communism: "There is no reason to think that the Communist International will succeed as the mouthpiece of infallible truth where the great Roman Catholic Church has failed. . . . No believer that tolerance, liberty and the scientific rather than the dogmatically religious approach to problems are essential to the good life can be content with Communism however keenly he may appreciate some of its benefits."

Even convinced Republicans may find some truth in his strictures on democracy: "Fifty million Frenchmen. British, Germans or Americans can be wrong."

Suggestions. According to Mr. Thomas, "Socialism is not a completely fixed and rigid scheme even of economic relations. It wants to destroy only so much of the old as endangers peace and freedom and plenty and to establish no more restraints than the working of specialized machinery for the common good makes necessary."

Eschewing dogma, never stepping out side his role of sweet reasonableness. Mr. Thomas suggests some changes Socialism would make: eliminate unearned income; revamp the Constitution (abolish the Senate, elect the House by proportional representation); equalize wages; introduce government employment agencies, unemployment insurance; abolish conscription in wartime. A Socialist government, thinks Mr. Thomas, would not attempt such experiments as Prohibition. "In general law should touch as little as possible . . . the personal habits and pleasures of men."

No pessimist, Norman Thomas thinks the Socialist party in the U. S. is on the upgrade, thinks it would smell as sweet by any other name. "What I think is likely to happen is that sooner or later--and things move fast in America when they start--something like a mass movement of men and women who want an integrated program will come together in a socialistic party, by whatever name it may be called." He sees three future possibilities: Owen-D.-Youngism, Communism, Socialism. The achievement of Socialism "by democratic processes and without world war" he considers "a possibility, not a certainty. It must be worked out. To work it out is the greatest task farseeing men have ever undertaken for society." And the answer to his book "will not be the words of any armchair critic but the test of life itself."

The Author. Graduate of Princeton University (1905) and of Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary (he was once assistant at the Brick Presbyterian Church), Norman Mattoon Thomas has wandered far from Princeton Presbyterianism. In 1918 he founded the radical pacifist magazine, The World Tomorrow, and was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union. Few strikes in Manhattan have gone without his aid. Never yet elected to a political office, he has been Socialist candidate for: Mayor of New York City, Governor of New York, U. S. Congressman, President of the U. S.

Back Bay Backbitten

WHITE FAWN--Olive Higgins Prouty-- Houghton Mifflin ($2.50).

The Vales were of Boston's best, and they had what it takes to stay that way-- plenty of money. When their eldest daughter Fabia reached the age of debutancy her coming-out was to be all that was Valeish. But Fabia was independent, and when she discovered that being a debutante was not only hard work but boring, it took all her mother's tact to keep her in harness. In spite of her indifference Fabia was a success: she was pretty, a good sort, a good catch. But then she met young Dr. Regan.

Dan Regan was young, able, ambitious, a good surgeon, but he lived on the wrong side of the State House and one of his uncles was a policeman. He and Fabia were quite unsuited to each other, so they fell headlong in love. Everybody deplored it, including themselves. They decided the sensible thing to do was to give each other up, eventually marry in their own class. With this in mind, Fabia became tentatively engaged to a suitable lawyer; Dan took a telephone girl to the cinema. But it didn't seem to work. Almost too late, Fabia had this idea: if Dan would give up his work in Boston and start again somewhere out West, she would marry him. So they settled on Seattle, where presumably lots of people have policemen in the family.

Total Recall

THIS OUR EXILE--David Burnham-- Scribner ($2.50).*

Serious young Author David Burnham sets out to show in his 400-page first novel how the entire house of Eaton disintegrates after the death of the elder Eaton. Frederick, the oldest son, loses his wife; Jackie, the youngest, thinks seriously of taking orders; Mother Eaton longs for death; James, the narrator, just feels sick most of the time. What virtue this book possesses lies in the dogged determination of Mr. Burnham to set down the minutiae of several years of his own life. Meticulously he notes each time that he came home from Princeton during his parent's lingering illness. Carefully he remembers each phase in the painful death and burial scenes. By sheer bulk of what psychologists know as total recall, Mr. Burnham's book assumes a sort of heavy impressiveness. In searching for a method in which to couch his sullen, unselective prose, he has chosen the Hemingway.

The Author is 24 years old, was graduated from Princeton in 1929. Like the narrator of This Our Exile, his elder brother runs a thoughtful magazine (The Symposium), his younger brother is regarded as quite serious-minded by his Princeton friends; two years ago he lost his father, late vice president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. Author Burnham knows well the comfortable Chicago suburb of which he writes; his home is at Kenilworth, Ill. At present he is in New Mexico, busy with a book in which some of This Our Exile's characters are to be transplanted to Italy.

One More Moore

APHRODITE IN AULIS--George Moore--Brentano's ($2.50).

George Moore is an old man (79) and has laurels to rest on, but he wanted to add one wreath to the pile, hence Aphrodite in Aulis. Increasing his works by one, he increased his reputation by little. It is written in approved Moore style, marmoreal-mellifluous. Perhaps it is Moore's approaching senescence that makes this careful story at times faintly silly.

Kebren, a young Athenian of the Great Age of Pericles, made a sorry hash of fish- mongering, his father's profession, and turned instead to the theatre, where he played the parts of messengers and dreamed of playing kings. Poetic but uncreative, Kebren gave his days and nights to the study of Homer, decided to wander the Greek world expounding the great poet. At Aulis, in Boeotia, he was entertained by a rich shipowner with a lovely daughter. Kebren and the girl fell in love. Her father approved and they were mar ried. Instead of expounding Homer, Kebren became a successful trader, a rich man. Two sons were born, Rhesos and Thrasillos. They inherited their father's temperament and something more : Rhesos grew up to be a sculptor, praised by Phidias; Thrasillos was an architect.

When the citizens of Aulis wanted to build a temple to Aphrodite, Kebren's sons were chosen to design the building, carve the statue. Rhesos wanted to make an Aphrodite that would be different from all others; he thought a lot, made many beginnings, but got no further. One morning early as he walked along the seashore, two lovely girls came swimming in. They had had an argument about which was most callipygian and asked Rhesos to decide. He did, and took his preference as model and wife; Thrasillos took the other. The tem ple was built, the statue erected; the citizens applauded. Kebren was glad his sons had done what he had never been able to do.

The Author. Four years ago George Moore was told by Sir John William Thomson-Walker, famed urologist, that he would have to have an operation for uremia. Sir John advised immediate action; Moore asked one month's grace so that he could outline this book, to have something to think about while convalescing. The operation over, the book finally written, he dedicated it to Sir John Thomson-Walker.

George Moore, Irishman of good family, lives in London, got his education in Paris cafes, listening to the talk of artists and writers. Called by some the best living prose-writer, he is to others like a red silk rag. He has cultivated a combination of highly artificial style and frankness sometimes shockingly naive. His Confessions of a Young Man put a flea in London's ear; his The Brook Kerith roused many an anathematic sermon. Few years ago he violently attacked Thomas Hardy, called him a bad writer; Hardy's defend ers called Moore many a worse name. Droopy of face and body, with a straggly mustache suspendent over a vestigial chin, he lives in London like an aging silkworm, spinning his gossamer but careful lines. Other books: Esther Waters, Memoirs of My Dead Life, A Story-Teller's Holiday, Hail and Farewell.

*New books are news. Unless otherwise designated, all books reviewed in TIME were published within the fortnight. TIME readers may obtain any book of any U. S. publisher by sending check or money-order to cover regular price ($5 if price is unknown, change to be remitted) to Ben Boswett of TIME, 205 East 42nd St., New York City.

*Published Feb. 6.

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