The Challenge of Socialism. Edited by Henry Pelling. (Adam and
Charles Black. 18s.)
THE British Political Tradition Series, of which this book is the latest example, seeks to give original texts, in various fields of British political development, within the compass of a reasonably inexpensive book— the kind of book which an undergraduate can afford to buy. Mr. Pelling, in anthol- ogising the socialist movement, has followed the usual practice of contemporary scholar- ship in resisting the temptation to seek its origins by a process of unravelling which could go back to the Peasants' Revolt. His earliest document is Thomas Spence's lecture on The Whole Rights of Man, delivered to the Newcastle Philosophical Society in 1775. His latest are statements by Mr. R. H. S. Crossman and others dating from 1952. In between he has given a well- balanced selection covering various aspects of Chartism, Trade Union Socialism, Christian Socialism Marxism, Communism, Guild Socialism and the teaching of the Social-Democratic Federation, Independent Labour Party, Fabian Society and other bodies. The names go from Godwin and Tom Paine to George Orwell and Mr. Bevan. This is an excellent text-book for an academic course (incidentally an attempt to allocate passages to authors, 'unseen,' is liable to be humbling). It also provides some excellent general reading in hard-
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