THE STORY OF DICTATORSHIP By E. E. Kellett
That the whole Greek world regarded tyranny as fit only for barbarians while the modern world is inclined to tolerate it is one of the disconcerting truths brought out in Mr. Kellett's instructive survey of dictatorships old and new (Nicholson and Watson, 4s. 6d.). He recalls the tyrants of Greece and Sicily, the despots of the Italian Renaissance, Napoleon, Francia and Lopez of Paraguay, and then deals with four of the existing tyrannies, in Russia, Italy, Germany and Austria, which, in Mr. Kellett's view, are far more efficient and dangerous than their prototypes. He quotes Coleridge as remembering how at the establishment of the French Consulate " it was ridiculed as pedantry to fear a repetition of usurpation and military despotism at the close of the enlightened eighteenth century." Mr. Kellett thinks that English people similarly err in dismissing a dictatorship in this country as absurdly impossible, unless indeed they take a keen interest in politics. When public opinion compels a strong Government to change its course, as in December, 1935, we see that the barriers against dictatorship here are still firm.
Previous page
