Commonwealth of Man, The

New York: A Borzoi Book - Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1952. BOOK: Corners, Spine Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled. DUST JACKET: Previous Owner Markings (Price Clipped); Repaired; Moderately Scuffed; Moderately Creased; Moderately Chipped; Moderate Sticker Pull; Moderately Soiled; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. The moving story of man's perennial vision of human unity and his quest for the One World ideal. SUB-TITLE: An Inquiry into Power Politics and World Government. CONTENTS: Chapter One - The Way of Violence; Chapter Two - The Vision of Man; Chapter Three - Peace by Conquest; Chapter Four - The New Caesarism; Chapter Five - Peace by Treason; Chapter Six - Peace by Planning; Chapter Seven - Peace by War; Chapter Eight - Peace by Contract; Epilogue: When the Sleeper Wakes; Index. SYNOPSIS: A brilliantly written, timely, and challenging history of the vision of human unity and of man's perennial quest for world order. In The Commonwealth of Man Mr. Schuman achieves an entirely fresh and often provocative approach to the historical problems of power politics, international anarchy, and war, and throws much new light on man's age-old search for unity, peace, and world government. Drawing on his wide knowledge of human history and applying the most recent findings of the social sciences, he presents a colorful pageant and a brilliant reinterpretation of adventures in world order from the days of the Pharaohs and the Caesars to our own era of cold war. The methods and techniques by which men from time immemorial have attempted to wield political power on an ever widening scale are examined and assessed in terms of their relative success or failure in bringing some semblance of order out of chaos. Mr. Schuman explores the nature of sovereignty, dissects the myth of peace by the sword, and in the light of the history of the last three decades reveals the inadequacies of the doctrine of collective security as a possible basis for international stability. Readers will find his discussion of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the Korean War deeply challenging and thought-provoking. No important aspect of the world-government problem is neglected in this fascinating book. Mr. Schuman has many illuminating things to say about the uses and limitations of pacifism and subversion (Peace by Treason) and functionalism and international bureaucracy (Peace by Planning) in relation to the main stream of the world-organization movement - aspects of the problem not commonly mentioned. The federalist approach to world government in both its regional and its global form is given full and constructive attention, and major federalist organizations both here and abroad are examined one by one. Such experiments in international co-operation as the Council of Europe, the Schuman Plan, UNESCO, and NATO are scrutinized and objectively evaluated. Although The Commonwealth of Man is not intended as a new plea for world government, the necessity for an international parliament of man is nevertheless eloquently implicit in Mr. Schuman's suggestive analysis of the struggle for power which has now polarized the world into two seemingly irreconcilable camps. The author's conclusions are appropriately realistic and hard-hitting, and while he is not pessimistic regarding the ultimate unity of mankind, he makes abundantly clear the formidable responsibilities and duties that men everywhere must accept before it can be attained. Frederick L. Schuman was born in Chicago in 1904. He was educated in the public schools there and later attended the University of Chicago, from which he received the degrees of Ph.B. and Ph.D. After a decade of teaching in Chicago, he went to Williams College as Visiting Lecturer in International Relations. In 1938 he joined the faculty there as Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government. In addition to teaching, Professor Schuman has had a distinguished career as lecturer and writer and has been the recipient of many honors, including a Social Science Research Fellowship, 1929-30, and the James-Rowe Fellowship of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1932-3. In 1942-3 he served in Washington in the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the FCC. The preparation of The Commonwealth of Man, Professor Schuman's first book since his highly successful Soviet Politics (1946), was made possible by a generous grant from the Foundation for World Government.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.