the atlantic communityby george catlin
TRANSCRIPT
The Atlantic Community by George CatlinReview by: Douglas G. AnglinThe Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique etde Science politique, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Feb., 1960), p. 194Published by: Wiley on behalf of Canadian Economics AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/138854 .
Accessed: 13/06/2014 11:28
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Wiley and Canadian Economics Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique et deScience politique.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.104.110.48 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 11:28:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science
formulating and executing a sound national security is not yet solved; that the
present Administration "has evaded rather than faced most of the basic issues of military policy." The book leaves one with a nagging fear that perhaps these problems may not be soluble without a domestic revolution in the United States which might entail the loss of the very objectives which the policy is
designed to protect. RICHARD A. PRESTON
Royal Military College of Canada
SHORT NOTICES
The Atlantic Community, by GEORGE CATLIN (Toronto: The Macmillan
Company of Canada Limited, 1959, pp. vi, 146, $2.50). In this brief book Professor Catlin returns to a familiar theme which has been his special concern for more than a third of a century: "the organic unification of the Atlantic World." The Atlantic Community is, in essence, a new edition, prefaced by a
lengthy introductory chapter, of One Anglo-American Nation published in 1941. This earlier essay received "quite an abnormal quantity of kindly com- ment" at the time, and many of the glowing testimonials to it and its author are reproduced in an appendix to the present volume.
Although the original argument has been left "substantially untouched," numerous sentences and whole paragraphs have been deleted, inserted or modified. The result is a curious compromise between a simple reprint and a full revision. Moreover, except in the case of the footnote references, there is
nothing to indicate where changes have been introduced. It is, therefore, frequently difficult, without exhaustive reference to the earlier edition, to
distinguish between genuine prophecy and mere hindsight. This is a pity, particularly as Professor Catlin's views of nineteen years ago have stood the test of time unbelievably well. Many readers are likely to assume, for example, that the proposal to include Germany within the Atlantic Union was an after-
thought of 1959, whereas in fact it was a daring idea advanced in the spring of 1941 during one of the dark periods of the war.
Although Professor Catlin sticks to the outline and much of the phraseology of his original argument, his emphasis has changed during the intervening years in two significant respects. In the first place, the rather doctrinaire con-
cept of "Federal Union" has been dropped in favour of the more flexible term
"Organic Union." Secondly, while the stress on "AngloSaxony" as the in-
dispensable nucleus remains, increased importance is attached to Western
Europe as part of the enlarged Atlantic Community, or Commonwealth of Free Nations as he prefers to call it.
There are a number of points on which Professor Catlin's case might be
challenged, but none which touches his central contention. In expounding this, he has shown himself once more to be a forceful, eloquent, and persuasive publicist as well as a confirmed prophet. Had we paid more heed to his
warnings two decades ago, the world might not be in as unhappy a plight as it is in today. [DOUGLAS G. ANGLIN]
formulating and executing a sound national security is not yet solved; that the
present Administration "has evaded rather than faced most of the basic issues of military policy." The book leaves one with a nagging fear that perhaps these problems may not be soluble without a domestic revolution in the United States which might entail the loss of the very objectives which the policy is
designed to protect. RICHARD A. PRESTON
Royal Military College of Canada
SHORT NOTICES
The Atlantic Community, by GEORGE CATLIN (Toronto: The Macmillan
Company of Canada Limited, 1959, pp. vi, 146, $2.50). In this brief book Professor Catlin returns to a familiar theme which has been his special concern for more than a third of a century: "the organic unification of the Atlantic World." The Atlantic Community is, in essence, a new edition, prefaced by a
lengthy introductory chapter, of One Anglo-American Nation published in 1941. This earlier essay received "quite an abnormal quantity of kindly com- ment" at the time, and many of the glowing testimonials to it and its author are reproduced in an appendix to the present volume.
Although the original argument has been left "substantially untouched," numerous sentences and whole paragraphs have been deleted, inserted or modified. The result is a curious compromise between a simple reprint and a full revision. Moreover, except in the case of the footnote references, there is
nothing to indicate where changes have been introduced. It is, therefore, frequently difficult, without exhaustive reference to the earlier edition, to
distinguish between genuine prophecy and mere hindsight. This is a pity, particularly as Professor Catlin's views of nineteen years ago have stood the test of time unbelievably well. Many readers are likely to assume, for example, that the proposal to include Germany within the Atlantic Union was an after-
thought of 1959, whereas in fact it was a daring idea advanced in the spring of 1941 during one of the dark periods of the war.
Although Professor Catlin sticks to the outline and much of the phraseology of his original argument, his emphasis has changed during the intervening years in two significant respects. In the first place, the rather doctrinaire con-
cept of "Federal Union" has been dropped in favour of the more flexible term
"Organic Union." Secondly, while the stress on "AngloSaxony" as the in-
dispensable nucleus remains, increased importance is attached to Western
Europe as part of the enlarged Atlantic Community, or Commonwealth of Free Nations as he prefers to call it.
There are a number of points on which Professor Catlin's case might be
challenged, but none which touches his central contention. In expounding this, he has shown himself once more to be a forceful, eloquent, and persuasive publicist as well as a confirmed prophet. Had we paid more heed to his
warnings two decades ago, the world might not be in as unhappy a plight as it is in today. [DOUGLAS G. ANGLIN]
194 194
This content downloaded from 193.104.110.48 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 11:28:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions