BookMark – 2
Socialism a look-back
By Dr R Balashankar
The Making of British Socialism, Mark Bevir, Princeton University Press,
Pp 350 (HB) , $39.50
There was a time when socialism was a fashion worn on the sleeves. In India we endlessly discussed the Nehruvian socialism. Almost all the nations had a brush with this ideology sometime or the other. In Britain, it had a revival in the 1990s under the New Labour after being sidelined for decades under neo-liberalism. The New Labour, says Mark Bevir, “presented itself as adhering to historic socialist “ends” while adopting new “means.” Bevir, professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley in his book The Making of British Socialism discusses the events, major players and ideological twists and bends that influenced and were influenced by socialism. But New Labour is not what he had in mind when he originally intended the book to be a sort of reply to socialism-bashers. He points out that British socialism always was broad-based and attracted radical democrats, pluralists, and those who preferred a non-governmental personal and social life.
The state support to slumping corporate in America in the on-going economic crisis has triggered off the new round of discussion on socialism. “The identification of socialism with “big government” is to say the least, misleading,” says Bevir and adds that it is not the massive state but the withering away of the state that is envisaged in socialism. Bevir describes how the ideologues of neo-liberalism, and market economy created scare in the minds by associating socialism with Soviet totalitarianism and stalled benevolent and ennobling projects.
Socialism dominated the political discourse in Britain in the 1880s and 1890s. The Labour Party was born in 1900. According to Bevir there were several strains of socialism. The present book focuses on the two decades prior to the launch of the formal party and also which of the strands merged into the Labour and how these various visions of socialism identified with the Labour Party. The influence of Marxism and the American romantics also have been analysed by Bevir. “Several ethical socialists owed a distinctive debt to American romantics such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.”
Socialism in Britain “marked a rupture with the evangelism and classical political economy (if not liberalism) that had dominated so much of the Victorian age.” The collapse of these two created a vacuum which was quickly filled by various forms of romantic organism. The making of the British socialism was, at least initially, a middle-class affair, Bevir says.
The book discusses the Marxists — Ernest Belfort Bax, Henry Mayers Hyndman, William Morris, followed by Fabians — George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb. The formation of the Social Democratic Federation and the birth of the Independent Labour Party are all portrayed elaborately by Bevir. There is also extensive discussion on the relationship between religion, Church and the socialists. In fact there is a separate chapter on The Labour Church Movement.
Bevir clarifying his objective in writing this book says: “I wanted to recapture the diversity of socialism and thereby find inspiration for a radical democratic and transformative politics that rejected market individualism for egalitarian fellowship.” In the cacophony today caught up with market economy, bigger profits, corporate bailouts and capitalism, Bevir’s may be a feeble voice. A voice of conviction nevertheless. It is an academic book, heavy and needs to be read with pauses and breaks.
(Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540)
Roosevelt’s Lost Alliances – How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War, Frank Costigliola,
Princeton University Press, Pp 533(HB), $35.00
By Dr R Balashankar
Three men from extremely different backgrounds came to control the destiny of their respective nations and together, the world. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Their upbringing influenced their world view and the way they would treat one another. All of them were formidable. What happened when they joined hands and how the breaking of the troika affected the future global politics is the story of Roosevelt’s Lost Alliances – How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War by Frank Costigliola.
Piecing together many blocks, Costigliola argues that the global peace worked out by Roosevelt was frittered away by his successor Harry Truman and the Cold War was not inevitable. Roosevelt was critical to keep the alliance going, he says. “He intended the coalition to continue into the postwar era, as did Joseph Stalin. Despite his Marxist-Leninist ideology, the Soviet dictator also identified with Czar Alexander I, who had remained a partner in the Holy Alliance after the victory over Napoleon… Churchill nervous about the “Great Russian Bear” and the “Great American Buffalo” squeezing the “poor little English donkey,” remained more ambivalent about continued Big Three partnership.
Roosevelt had been brought up wealthy, privileged and pampered. “He benefitted from charm, good looks and what became known as “Roosevelt luck.” Churchill on the other hand had a difficult childhood and had often clashed with authority figures. He had been conditioned by his Victorian perspective on imperial rivalry. Stalin was the son of a cobbler and had a very grim childhood. He was beaten by his father and he grew up “surrounded by the authoritarian cultures of family, Orthodox seminary, czarist regime and Bolshevik Party.” While Churchill and Stalin suffered from inner apprehensions, Costigliola says Roosevelt brimmed with confidence, certain of his nation’s and his personal triumph.
Truman, who according to the book was the peace-breaker, suffered from “fierce pride with deep insecurity.” It was the twist of destiny that made Truman the president of America at a crucial time, when it most needed a strong man at the helm. Truman, knowing little about foreign affairs, relied on his advisors, predominantly Harriman, who along with Byrnes advised tough line against the Soviets. Costigliola narrates how the personal ego and lack of vision and generosity of the dramatis personae in the American set up post-Roosevelt affected the global political climate and pushed the world into a horrible Cold War, in to the vortex of which every nation was drawn and made to take a stand either way.
Costigliola has used fresh material, including Roosevelt’s letters to his de facto chief of staff Missy LeHand and his daughter Anna’s diary. Costigliola gives a blow by blow account of the events that led to the alliance and its breaking away. He discusses a wide range of personalities involved in the negotiations and the administrations. Costigliola is professor of history at the University of Connecticut and former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
(Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540)
The carpetbaggers of the British Empire
By Dr Vaidehi Nathan
The Inner Life of Empires – An Eighteenth Century History, Emma Rothschild, Princeton University Press, Pp 483 (HB), $ 35.00
Eleven siblings — seven brothers and four sisters — were a family that was very active in Britain during the eighteenth century. Born and brought up in Scotland in the 1720s and 1730s the Johnstones spread all over the globe, serving the empire. They had for friends some of the powerful men of the times like David Hume, Adam Smith, James Macpherson. They were educated, literary and vocal.
The Inner Life of Empires – An Eighteenth-Century History by Emma Rothschild narrates the lives of these men and women. “The Johnstones’ history is a story of how individuals made money in the eighteenth-century empires, and especially of making money by the use of information. It is also a history of the institution of slavery, from the East to the West Indies.” Two of the siblings were publicly opposed to slavery while one was a prominent defender of the slave trade. Except one sister, the rest of them moved out of home, went around and returned richer. One of the Johnstones sisters joined a rebel army, was imprisoned and escaped from jail in disguise.
Emma Rothschild says that the Johnstones were no more than minor figures in the public events of the times, they were on the wrong side of history, but left behind “an amazing amount of evidence or traces of their lives.”
Three brothers were in India, one of them, John, speaking fluent Bengali and Persian. James, William, George and John were elected to the House of Commons and from 1768 to 1805, “there was always at least one them in parliament, and sometimes as many as three,” says the author.
“The Johnstones presented themselves, in the debates over the East India Company, as the defenders of the oppressed people of India.” John who had served the Company was nearly forced out, after allegations that he had taken unfitting gifts. John maintained that gifts were freely accepted by the white men and he had committed no excess. John later (1771) wrote to the Company offering to return to India as Governor of Bengal, where he had served the company with “more Zeal” and administered the revenues of Bengal “with less Oppression to the Natives.” His offer was not accepted. Warren Hastings, a friend of Robert Clive, was appointed. It was Clive who was responsible for John’s ouster.
According to Emma, “The letters between the brothers and sisters were filled, like so many eighteenth-century letters, with descriptions of illness. The brothers who had returned from overseas were constantly concerned with the ailments they had brought with them: the illness of empire.”
This book is a social history of the lives of “common people” of the British Empire that had spread across three continents. Johnstones is an interesting family because there were so many of them and all of them enterprising. By following their lives and events, Rothschild has traced the nuances of ordinary life, with no mention and discussion of the high and mighty. Johnsotnes represent an upwardly mobile population that grabbed at every opportunity, and used it to progress in the social ladder. Immense amount of wading through documents must have been done by Rothschild to churn out these accounts.
(Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540)
Physics as biology – unlikely partners in healing
By Dr Vaidehi Nathan
Quantum Doctor – A Physicist’s Guide to Health and Healing, Amit Goswami, Jaico Publishing House, Pp 297 (PB), Rs 295
Can physics heal diseases? What does quantum to do with biology? And is there a thing called mind over matter? Quantum physicist Amit Goswami asserts that there is a connection between the two apparently far-removed areas. His book Quantum Doctor – A Physicist’s Guide to Health and Healing elaborates on this integration of philosophies. Refreshing, thought-provoking, Amit Goswami goes beyond the surface, into mind and matter and evolves a line that is worth pursuing.
It is all about the primacy of consciousness, says Goswami at the outset. He discusses all about the conventional medicine (allopathic) juxtaposed with several other traditional medicines like Ayurveda, the Chinese medicine, and homeopathy. While allopathic is invasive and has many side effects, some as yet unknown, the other systems attempt to reach to the cause of the disease and address them rather than the symptoms. The Chinese medicine is based on the movement of the mysterious energy called chi, the Ayurveda looks at the imbalance of the doshas, in homeopathy it is all about the salts.
The author elaborates significantly on the Mind-Body Medicine, with a chapter on ‘The Quantum Explanation of the Techniques of Mind-Body Medicine.’ Explaining that the Western medical practitioners refuse to accept the mind-body theory because science is supposed to have eradicated dualism, that is, the mind and body are one. “Mind and matter both are quantum possibilities for consciousness to choose from.”
The phenomenon of mind-body mechanism is best explained by the placebo effect. Patients are induced to “think” they are getting medicines, whereas they get nothing more than sugar pills and yet, they show remarkable recovery. These kinds of experiments have been conducted scientifically at several places. With the mind-body mechanism it is possible to even beat ageing.
This is an interesting book that opens the mind to a whole new world of health and healing. Definitely an interesting read. Goswami is a teacher, researcher, and resident quantum physicist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of several books.
(Jaico Publishing House, A-2, Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001)
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