BOOKS
447
war against Fascism is that
~ts
defeat is an essential condition (but
not sufficient) of the survival of the labor and socialist movement.
While the war lasts, the labor movement and its allies must strive to
give an anti-Fascist content to the war, and through its own independ–
ent political action mobilize wide popular sentiment for democratic
goals. At certain points this brings it into conflict with reactionary
forces in its own country which seek to liquidate social gains under
the slogans of national unity. In this struggle the Stalinists are the
most bitter opponents of independent and ·militant action. They side
with the reactionaries and are actually calling for the arrest of Norman
Thomas and other anti-Fascists who are trying to protect labor's
position. Labor's task during the war is difficult enough, as Laski
well realizes, since it must fight on two fronts. But he has created a
program which, even
if
successfully carried out on Qne front, cannot but
lead to defeat on the ()ther.
SIDNEY HooK
HEROES OF SELF-DEFEAT
THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CARPENTERS. By Hermonn Borchordt.
Simon ond Schuster. $2.75.
It
is
impossible to read
The Conspiracy of the Carpenters-the
book's only chance is to have people talk ahout it.
In his imaginary account of what might have happened in a C()Un·
try like Germany some f()rty years ago, Borchardt parodies the manner
of county or provincial history--a literary product usually so dull
that it is of interest only to those wh()se names are mentioned in it.
Since &rchardt's province d()es not exist, it is hard t() see why he
crowded it with
S()
many uninteresting people.
An
army of Charac–
ters--aldermen, merchants, soldiers, wives, honest artisans, wrestlers,
servants--bivouac in Borchardt's sagging pages; He builds scores of
Significant Incidents; collects an immense album of Great Occasions,
including excerpts from the long-remembered speeches delivered there–
on. All of this is displayed with a kind of complacent wit that
succeeds more often in looking ood than in being amusing.
What makes
The Conspiracy
a "novel" rather than the official
history of, say Schaumburg-Lippe, 1894-1906, is that it is the chronicle
()f events that never took place, told in order to make a point. Bor–
chardt's aim is to show how a nation torn by the characteristic conflicts
of modern society can come out of it whole. The Republic he is
describing is in a state ()f crisis, and the stage is occupied by the
familiar political
dramatis personae
of our time. There is the grand
old president (tyrannical and not even always honest but decidedly a
great man), the class of sober merchants, the churchmen, the patriots.
There are, too, the disruptive liberals, always making provocative
speeches and writing articles about liberty, science and progress;
