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English Radicalism, 1886-1914. By S. Maccoby. (Allen and Unwin. 42s.)
THERE is a great gap in British historical writing which I had hoped this book might fill. "Radicalism" was a separate thing from Liberalism up till August 4th, 1914, at least, and it had a profound influence on our history. But it has been neglected because its successors, the Socialists, were interested in their own origins only and (so far as the elder members were concerned) remembered Radicalism chiefly as a dangerous illusion which they had successfully dissipated in their own minds and their colleagues'. In fact, they never freed themselves from it, which was indeed an excellent thing, for there was a great deal in Radical thought which was of eternal value. In particular I am thinking of the passionate Radical belief in personal freedom; I wish it were stronger, not less strong, in the Labour movement today.
Dr. Maccoby, though his book is learned in its way, has not filled this gap. The valuable part of his book is that—nine- tenths of the whole—devoted to a detailed account of the sessions of Parliament in his period. This proceeds election by election, session by session and even week by week, and much of the material can never be of any value except to very close students. But the quotations often have a liveliness from which Dr. Maccoby's own writing is wholly free, and the book will remain 'a useful quarry. The subsections on "Labour" and India are not equally well-informed, and the occasional and rather appalling quota- tions from extra-Parliamentary Radicals such as Dr. John Clifford only serve to remind us what a wide field remains un-
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