Abstract

The author's first purpose is "to see what a sober man can still believe about human history and destiny,...and what hopes he can reasonably permit himself in his political faith and public actions." He concludes that one can still accept most of the "liberal" philosophy of history, including belief in unlimited human progress and the solution of mankind's problems by means of scientific inquiry. In support of this conclusion, he offers sometimes facile refutations of contemporary critics of liberalism such as Maritain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Toynbee, and Mannheim. But the book is interesting throughout and is written in an easy, graceful style. --A. C. P.