Victory or Vested Interest? (Routledge Library Editions: WW2)

ORWELL, GEORGE

Cole, G.D.H.

Sutherland, Mary

Laski, Harold

Reference

Routledge

This book, first published in 1942, covers the whole field of wartime life and organization. Is the private ownership and control of industry holding up production? Are the burdens of war being shared equally by the whole community? How can individual liberty be reconciled with maximum efficiency? Are women taking their rightful share in the national effort? Does our literature and art reflect the spirit of an aroused and determined people? Have we a message which will win the oppressed peoples of Europe to our side? These questions are frankly discussed and positive suggestions are made.

Williams, Francis

Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time

Harold J. Laski saw World War Two as a period of revolutionary change as profound as any in the modern history of the human race. In his view, the period's inner nature was as significant in its essentials as those which saw the fall of the Roman Empire; the birth in the Reformation of capitalist society; or, as in 1789, the final chapter in the dramatic rise of the middle class to power. All of these were not revolutions made by thinkers, though some of them may have foreseen its coming, but of ordinary people who shaped the large outlines of the direction of these changes.Laski held that revolutions of our time have been rooted in all that goes to give its present character to our society. We can recognize its advent and prepare for it; in that event, we might build a civilization richer and more secure than any of which we so far have knowledge. Or we may chose to resist its onset; in which case, it will appear to some future generation that our age has sought rather to sweep back the tides of the ocean than to oppose the decrees of men.The curse of our social order is its persistent inequalities. Either we must find ourselves able to co-operate in their removal, or we shall move rapidly to conflict about them. Laski argues that the middle class must co-operate with workers in essential revisions, as the aristocracy was wise enough to do a century ago over the Reform Bill, or violent revolution will be unleashed by means that transforms the ends of either party to the conflict in view. This is the choice that lies before us. Just how accurate or wide of the mark Laski was is brilliantly articulated in the critical introduction by Sidney A. Pearson, Jr.

History

Europe

The State in Theory and Practice

This timeless classic by Harold J. Laski explains the nature of the modern state by examining its characteristics, as revealed by its history. The State in Theory and Practice is a work that grows in significance, rather than dwindles over time. This is because, as Sidney A. Pearson, Jr. points out, Laski helped develop and expound the foundational arguments of the political left.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, even on the hard left, few people thought of Marxism, at least in its classical formulation by Laski in the 1930s, as a political alternative. Much of the interest in Laski seeks to separate the early Laski of pluralist parliamentary arguments from the later Laski of Marxism. Laski's appeal rests on subtle aspects of his science of politics that require a detailed examination before their full significance can be understood. The state is a work that operates at several layers of assumptions and implications.The significance of Laski starts with the observation that among many intellectuals on the left, the political critique of liberal democracy remains as influential after the collapse of the Soviet Union as it was when Laski wrote. The leftist critique of classical liberalism is one of the touchstones of modern political thought and Laski remains part of that tradition. Laski is one of the links between what might be called the "old left" of the pre-World War II era and the "new left" of the 1960's and later.

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

This set comprises works spanning Laski's career as a political thinker and the volumes re-issued here examine the questions of how government might be made more open and accountable and how the broad-based properity necessary to democracy might be assured. These remain central questions for both established and emerging democracies. Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty (1917), Authority in the Modern State (1919), and The Foundations of Sovereignty (1921) are all works which expand Laski's pluralist doctrine of the State; a theory then applied in modified form in A Grammar of Politics (1925). Communism (1927) argues against the concept of a Western Communist revolution. Democracy in Crisis (1933) and the more optimistic Reflections on the Constitution (1951) result from the defeat of Labour in 1931 and the onset of the Slump, at which point Laski rejected pluralism in favour of Marxist theory. Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (1949) predicts a "revolution by consent" arising from the common war-effort. Also included are An Introduction to Politics (1931), The Rise of European Liberalism (1936) Parliamentary Government in England (1938), The Danger of Being a Gentleman (1939), Programme for Victory (1941), The Strategy of Freedom (1942) and The Dilemma of Our Times (1952).

The Works of Harold J. Laski

Philosophy

This timeless classic by Harold J. Laski explains the nature of the modern state by examining its characteristics, as revealed by its history. The State in Theory and Practice is a work that grows in significance, rather than dwindles over time. This is because, as Sidney A. Pearson, Jr. points out, Laski helped develop and expound the foundational arguments of the political left.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, even on the hard left, few people thought of Marxism, at least in its classical formulation by Laski in the 1930s, as a political alternative. Much of the interest in Laski seeks to separate the early Laski of pluralist parliamentary arguments from the later Laski of Marxism. Laski's appeal rests on subtle aspects of his science of politics that require a detailed examination before their full significance can be understood. The state is a work that operates at several layers of assumptions and implications.  The significance of Laski starts with the observation that among many intellectuals on the left, the political critique of liberal democracy remains as influential after the collapse of the Soviet Union as it was when Laski wrote. The leftist critique of classical liberalism is one of the touchstones of modern political thought and Laski remains part of that tradition. Laski is one of the links between what might be called the "old left" of the pre-World War II era and the "new left" of the 1960's and later.

The essays that comprise Studies in Law and Politics are by and large academic. But Laski had a purpose in addition to the purely scholarly: he was eagerly pursuing possibilities for social and political change. Laski sought tirelessly for opportunities to act on those possibilities and, as is the case throughout his work, his academic and political purposes have no clear boundary between them. Studies in Law of Politics was published at a crucial juncture in Laski's ideological metamorphosis. During this period he had become increasingly worried that socialists might not be able to achieve the growth of working-class power. Although the essays contained in the volume cover a wide range of topics, and a wide span of time since the mid-1920s, he brought them into unity by a common approach. Though he does not make his unifying premise immediately evident to his readers, he clearly meant to chart the growth of power of those who had previously been without influence. His goal also was to identify the problems facing growth in a highly modernized society. Studies in Law and Politics reveals Laski's growing realization that the road to socialism might be more difficult than what he had believed when he wrote his pluralist works. The book reflects the mind of a thinker who was not content to write exclusively as an academic or a political activist. His view was that, while progressive reforms have been achieved in the past, they are not easily accomplished, and obstacles to further reforms should not be underestimated. This sober work offers much insight into Laski's intellectual development, as well as the times about which he wrote.

Studies in Law and Politics

Harold J. Laski saw World War Two as a period of revolutionary change as profound as any in the modern history of the human race. In his view, the period’s inner nature was as significant in its essentials as those which saw the fall of the Roman Empire; the birth in the Reformation of capitalist society; or, as in 1789, the final chapter in the dramatic rise of the middle class to power. All of these were not revolutions made by thinkers, though some of them may have foreseen its coming, but of ordinary people who shaped the large outlines of the direction of these changes.  Laski held that revolutions of our time have been rooted in all that goes to give its present character to our society. We can recognize its advent and prepare for it; in that event, we might build a civilization richer and more secure than any of which we so far have knowledge. Or we may chose to resist its onset; in which case, it will appear to some future generation that our age has sought rather to sweep back the tides of the ocean than to oppose the decrees of men.  The curse of our social order is its persistent inequalities. Either we must find ourselves able to co-operate in their removal, or we shall move rapidly to conflict about them. Laski argues that the middle class must co-operate with workers in essential revisions, as the aristocracy was wise enough to do a century ago over the Reform Bill, or violent revolution will be unleashed by means that transforms the ends of either party to the conflict in view. This is the choice that lies before us. Just how accurate or wide of the mark Laski was is brilliantly articulated in the critical introduction by Sidney A. Pearson, Jr.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laski, Harold. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Laski, Harold

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Laski, Harold. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Victory or Vested Interest? (Routledge Library Editions: WW2)

Victory or Vested Interest? (Routledge Library Editions: WW2)

Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time

The State in Theory and Practice

The Works of Harold J. Laski

The State in Theory and Practice

Studies in Law and Politics

Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time