The Individualist Campaign
THE Individualist Bookshop, founded by Sir Ernest Berm, has now been opened some months and ought to prosper. There is, we are sure, a large demand for trustworthy books on economics and economic history and on the existing structure of society. But we are by no means certain whether the Bookshop's descriptive catalogue, now issued in a neat and handy form, will meet the need. As a bibliography it is very far from being complete ; as a catalogue it gives equal prominence to what is really authori- tative and to obsolescent or second-rate works that no serious student troubles to read. Some of the best modern books, like Professor J. H. Jones's Economics of Private Enterprise, or Taussig's standard Principles of Economics, are merely named in a supplementary list. Furthermore, the author of the bibliography is unduly afraid of mentioning books from the opposite camp. We are inclined to think that the perusal of Mr. Sidney Webb's Constitution for the Social Commonasealth of Great Britain, Mr. Bertrand Russell's Roads to Freedom, and the writings of Trotsky and Lenin would tend to make the average reader an Individualist, not to say a Die-hard. We would suggest that a first-rate and dispassionate treatise on political philosophy, like Mr. R. M. McIver's The Moder). State, would greatly strengthen the bibliography, together with the Stevenson lectures on Citizenship by Sir W. IL Hadow, and on The Common Weal by Mr.. Herbert Fisher, Warden of New College. We sympathize so cordially North Sir Ernest Benn's desire to promote a fuller knowledge of politics and economics—if, indeed, the two subjects can nos be disentangled—that we should ince to see his bibliogra03 drastically revised.
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