POWER AND HUMAN DESTINY

by Herbert Rosinski ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

No book is ever satisfactorily reduced to its essence in the space of a paragraph, but this one resists the attempt altogether. Embodying as it does ""the intellectual legacy"" of a remarkable man who was best known as an authority on international military problems, the book is nothing less than an analysis of all kinds of power, seen in ""the full sweep of human history,"" with the basic crises of the present and future of mankind as the focal theme. Rosinski devoted much of his later life to this ambitious effort, and while a preliminary version was published in 1960, he continued refining his thoughts until he died two years later, still unsatisfied with what he had accomplished. This translation from the original German no doubt gains much by having been done by Richard Stebbins, an admiring friend of the author. Rosinski's approach is predominantly moral--""The counterpart of power,"" he said, ""is responsibility --but his main point is that we cannot seek to avoid it; ""our industrial civilization automatically creates ever more and ever greater power,"" and ""ever-new tensions,"" and our only possible course must be a discriminating acceptance of such facts of life. Only then can we draw upon ""the most life-giving sources we possess."" Not an easy book to read any more than it is an overly optimistic one, this study nevertheless deserves the widest and most serious attention.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION