A History of British Socialism. By M. Beer. 2 vela.
(G. Bell. 12a. 6d. and 15s. net.)—Herr Beer, an Austrian-German Socialist who lived in England before the war, has written a useful history of English Socialism in its varied forms from the middle ages down to last year. The author does justice to the originality of men like Owen and seems impressed with the comparative moderation and intellectual honesty of English Radicals in the Victorian age. His later chapters dealing with the various Socialist organizations of the last half-century contain a good deal of information which is not easily found. It is curious that Herr Beer should conclude with a warning that Socialists " must take up their mission with clean hands and pure hearts and not to try to do God's work with the devil's tools," and that they must think less about material benefits than about moral reform. This advice will be far from welcome to some of his British friends.
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