A view from the other shore
J. M. ROBERTS
The European Renaissance since 1945 Maurice Crouzet (Thames and Hudson 35s)
This book must suffer by being launched in the wake of Richard Mayne's tour de force. It will be a pity because M Crouzet has much to offer and is not writing about the same thing. Though his title might cover another account of the making of the Common Mar- ket, he has a bigger theme. This is a descrip- tion of recovery and change, of the evolu- tion of all European countries, West and East, along the lines laid down by industrial- ism. It is an assessment of how far we have come, economically, socially, politically, cul- turally, since 1945. As it is by a Frenchman it is only to be expected that it is exceptionally well-organ- ised and lucid. It displays all that power of synthesis which French academics seem to be able to bring convincingly to bear on the most diffuse topics. The categories into which the book divides its subject-matter are not exhaustive, but it is not easy to see how they could be bettered in 90 short a study, They are imposed by M Crouzet's leading themes, the advance of industrial society in the widest sense and the concomitant con- centration of power in few hands. The sec- ond of these themes is less convincing than the first; we nowhere have any analysis of what 'power' really means. This may be because of compression. Some other weaknesses also seem to arise from this, To include eastern Europe as well as western, for example, makes it all but impossible to find strictly comparable evidence for all societies. It is difficult enough to do so for the west alone, of course; in one or two ex- amples one country is somewhat unconvinc- ingly assumed to be typical of a general process. The East, in any case, is more sym. pathetically treated than the West—there is no discussion of what its economic difficul- ties after 1945 owed to the Russian removals of machinery and plant, for example. Per- haps this is something to do with the relative amount of information available, though it ought not to be. It arises more obviously from a prejudice which is, perhaps predict- ably, matched throughout by irritation and alarm at the deli americain. These defects are inseparable from a point of view which made the book possible: others are much less forgivable. M Crouzet's urge to cover the ground lets him down badly on the arts, where he is reduced to the fami- liar text-book device of cataloguing names in meaningless schools. They would be better left out. Much worse, though, are actually erroneous and misleading statements (ex- amples can be found on pp 29, 41, 44, 103. 105, 170). Some are gibberish and perhaps arose m translation; certainly this text is in other places slipshod and careless. This is something which the publisher's editing should have picked up. The publisher should also have had another go at the illustration: most of the pictures in this are dismally familiar, and some of those which are not have lost all their impact by being squeezed into a ludicrously inappropriate layout (see the Bratby and the Hamilton on p 145). Warts and all, this is nevertheless still a worthwhile evening's reading. It is a remark- able evocation of an era; querulous, uncer- tain, guilty, reluctantly admiring, it is a document of it in its own right. For an Englishman it has the great merit of being a view from the other shore. In its pages we are patted on the back for our pioneering social legislation, for our town-planning. the BBC and for a popular cultural level expres- sed in a very• high degree of true literacy. In the middle of our present discontents such praise is worth' note. But there is a better reason to read this book; as a whole, it has an irresistible force as a demonstration of the vital importance .botfi to our neighbours and ourselves that we go into Europe.
Previous page
