Prophet out of U.S.A.
Faith for Living. By Lewis Mumford. (Secker and Warburg. 7s.6d.)
IT is a pleasure to call attention to this book, which comes to us from America but sounds a trumpet call of encouragement to us in our struggle for freedom. Mr. Mumford would probably dis- like to be called a prophet, but he has two of the characteristics of the Hebrew prophets—insight into the historical situation and moral passion. Perhaps we have read, as we think, enough denunciations of Fascism, but we shall not regret reading Mr. Mumford's devastating analysis. It has the great ment of attribut- ing many of the most deplorable features of the period to moral causes. " We did not realise that in each generation man must reconquer the Yahoo within him and establish his own right to be human."
The nature of Fascism is a deliberate reversion to the primitive and an organised revolt against civilisation. The Fascist move- ment has made headway partly because of the existence of nega- tive pacificism in civilised countries—at the moment when war became absolute evil to many it became absolute good to the new barbarians. The active barbarism of the Fascists has been assisted by the passive barbarism of the cowards who will not resist any aggression. Mr. Mumford has the quality which is so rare among those who write on political matters, that of not being deceived by words. Thus he classifies Russia as a Fascist country and speaks of Stalin's " oriental despotism." The mes- sage which Mr. Mumford has to deliver, presumably chiefly to his own countrymen, is that which all prophets have to give— repent. He believes that the liberalism of practical politics has grievously departed from ideal liberalism by forgetting the ulti- mate values. It was utilitarian and " pragmatic " with the best intentions, but it prepared the way for the worship of power.
Mr. Mumford believes in the reality of sin, not in any meta. phorical sense, but in the plain straightforward meaning of the term, " a defiance of what the sinner knows to be best." Any sociology or political diagnosis which ignores the fact of sin is romantic and unrealistic.
The book is not wholly satisfactory, because it leaves a cenain vagueness in the end concerning the religious foundation on which the author would have us build. It would be difficult to determine whether he is in any sense a Christian, but there can be no doubt that he has uttered some salutary truths. We nut be grateful to him for some generous words about our bearing in the ordeal which has come upon us—" the British whose un. flinching heroism in the face of terror has raised the very stature
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