FATE AND FREEDOM

The ex-head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, at present a judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals, has written a lively and provocative attack on ""scientific historians"", on ""determinism"", economic and otherwise, in fact on all forms and manners of what he calls ""inevitablism"". His plea is for free-will, determination (for the more abundant life) as against determinism, He defends his optimistic and flexible point of view as more natively American than the various fatalisms contained in such imported products as Marxism, Hegelism, etc. He supports his thesis with many concepts and quotations from thinkers and philosophers of all ages, and the resulting volume, if not strictly scholarly, is vivacious, disarming and readable. It will appeal particularly to liberals among whom Frank is well known.