LEADERS, DREAMERS AND REBELS

The author's Rasputin had a tremendous sale, which should stimulate interest in this historical study of the power of dreams and ideals in molding world history. Fears played a tremendous part; visions, an enobling part; wish-fulfilment, a stimulating part. And each motive, each impetus, found being in the form of leaders, fanatics, madmen, rebels. There is a certain excitement in the material, a swift, scintilating reach and grasp, virtually no lingering to build a character, to meld an idea, beyond the inception and the promise. For this reason, it is elusive, sometimes confused, never easy reading. And yet it stimulates the imagination, stirs the memory, gives now significance to the great mass movements of history. A book for serious students of historical theory, for thoughtful and discriminating readers, but not for the casual comer.