TIDES OF CRISIS

In what he terms a ""conversational"" style, the former Assistant Secretary of State puts before the public the total political plight of the world, with the economic struggles which are also entailed. Berle thinks in terms of huge masses or alliances of power, dividing the world into rival camps and tracing the history of these rival interests to their roots in every era. His tendency throughout is to conceive of major tensions and major groups as outcomes of previous conflicts and alignments; to relate, for example, the Soviet ideology to the flourishing of early religious philosophy. He argues the necessity for an ever closer union among the nations of the Western Hemisphere, and especially the necessity for the United States to assert itself freely, generously, aggressively in behalf of democratic ideals. Berle cherishes the hope that he has promoted here a true and inclusive understanding for the widest possible audience of these problems, decisions, and long-range aims which have been far too much entrusted to the informal judgment of the few. That he has taken a step in this critical direction is beyond dispute; how far he has gone remains to be seen in the book's future influence.