Review

Author(s): David C. Smith

Review by: David C. Smith
Source: Utopian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, The Isle of Pines (2006), pp. 261-264
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20718815
Accessed: 27-02-2016 00:17 UTC

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 Book Reviews

Since Socrates' initial confrontationwith the

doxastic crystallizationof life,it is clear that the
investigation concerning the essence of justice
will resolve around the question of generation,
ofgenesis, of becoming?around the freeingof
furtherpossibilities for gathering and giving
shape tobecoming, around thedesedimentation
of ossifiedpractices and assumption which curb
life.(82)

"
Earlier, we also have the following: this agreement, this coming together
of desire, thisdesire to agree is thatwhich allows for all bringingand
joiningtogetherin analogy" (22). Baracchis convolutedand tripartitestyle
is reminiscent of Plato's tripartite division of society. I often found myself
two and three times. And while this is not necessarily a
re-reading passages
criticism, I would thus take issue with the blurb on the cover of the book
about "Baracchi s beautifully crafted prose."
This book is inappropriate for professors seeking to supplement their
courses in Utopian studies with new material. students simply
Undergraduate
will not be able to cope with its convoluted style.Only a few specialists in
Plato's Republic will benefit from this excellent and
thought-provoking study.
Iftheyreadwith care,they
may occasionallyhearPlato'sRepublicspeakingfor
itself,and themessage for a totalitarian state is
alarming.

J. Papalas
Anthony
East Carolina University

William T. Ross. H.G. Wells's World Reborn: The Outline ofHistory and
Its Companions. PA: Susquehanna UP, 2002. 135 pp.
Selinsgrove,
$33.50

H. G. Wellss The Outline ofHistory is sometimes described as the second

greatestsellingbook published sinceGutenberg.Although thatclaimmay

not be one of themost
possible to prove, the book certainly is popular books
of all time. How then can one review a book
supposedly describing how and
why thebookwas published?The answer is thatyou simplycannotdo it in

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 UTOPIAN STUDIES 17.1

135 pages. It isonlypossible to describewhat is in the 135 pages and hope

that people will understand it as a best-seller, a guide to the
understanding
in a a
past, and Utopian sense, guidebook for the future.
It is perhapshelpful to begin by listinga few examplesof Ross's
textual bibliographic aremany editions ofWells's
findings. There masterpiece,
TheOutlineof with a 24-partserialin 1919 and latergoing
History,beginning
six bound editions. There are also numerous translated editions,
through
editions formatted for elementary students, and several deluxe editions.
There are also various covers, illustrations, and distinctive qualities of paper
and binding. Wells oversaw all of the editions, even entertaining a Japanese
translator and others in his home to discuss the book.
In addition to the texts, a workbook with a Teachers Handbook
and A Supplement for Practical History, provided ideas for art, crafts,murals,
to interpret this history were made available. These
plays and other methods
workbookswere stillbeingpublishedwhenWorldWar II brokeout.A one
volume version, A ShortHistory, was later condensed in 1925 and "adapted
for School use." A suite of essay and discussion questions are located at the
rearof thisbook. In 1926 thebookwas burned inpublic,alongwith another
book, Zane Grey's To The LastMan. Those who attended the bonfire service
inHarlan County, Kentucky swore never again to read a book criticizing the
Book ofGenesis inThe Bible. Followingthisevent,a book lengthparodyof
theOutlinewas published in 1929.
Finally, Ross mentions that a Junior Version of the Outline was
in 1932 in both English and American editions. There are even
published
murals on thewalls atOundle School which were designed to aid in the
a at the other textbooks,
study of history. Ross's book provides very brief look
but he ismore interested inwhen theywere written rather than the content
of thebooks. The amount of effort
put into this labourbyWells and his
collaborators was prodigious, and made more difficult as he suffered from
the influenza pandemic of the time. The work was an extraordinary effort
to write a and Wells
complete history of all aspects of human history,
others to write their own outlines so that the basic educational needs
urged
which might lead to a world state would eventually bring on the Utopia
When one adds the otherOutlines, The ScienceofLife,
Wells envisioned.
and TheWork, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind, it seems a Sisyphean task.
It is clear thatWells took the available tools of his time, typewriters,

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 Book Reviews

carbon paper, pens, inexpensive paper and wonderful working conditions

to undertake a
campaign
to make the world over?as he said, to create a
"a universally understandable and communicable history and philosophy"
Wells once and Aristotle were his exemplars, and he
said that Herodotus
foresaw a world in which three bases ruled: science, a universal religion
"to the open service of one God of Righteousness," and a "world polity"
In 1937,Wells was elected as the new president of a section of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science and charged with revising the
school curriculum. Wells is at his most he iswriting about
brilliant when
to
teaching, about learning, and, above all, using these skills change theworld.
World War II was too too brutal, and the nature of things to come looked
long,
to be horrible. isno headstone on a grave, he told an old friend
Although there
that his choice of words would have been, "God Damn It; I Told You So."
Not all readerslikedTheOutline ofHistory.A largely
Roman Catholic
attack on thework ensued fromHilaire Belloc, Father Richard Downey, and
Professor A. Gomme. Wells absorbed many of the comments and credited the
writers, all except Hilaire Belloc who wrote many articles and a book on the
ofWells s ideas.
inequity Wells respondedtohimwith a book ofhis own and
many articles. In addition to new knowledge, the decade-long discussion of
Wells and his ideas amused many readers in England and theUnited States.
The Outline ofHistory, as Ross tells us, was an all time best seller,
and the controversy over its contents gave it even more publicity. Over the

past forty years I have asked many colleagues and students for comments
on the work. A
surprising number of historians tell of reading the book as
a small child under the covers with a
flashlight. Even though their politics
was different fromWells, most of my
colleagues and students remembered
the book with pleasure, remembering how well itwas written and, unlike
much history of the time, they mentioned that this book was still "fun."
Wells to his readers. In a passage about
spoke directly Christianity, he
said:

Sooner or later mankind must come to

one universal peace, unless our race is to be

destroyed by the increasing power of its own

destructive inventions;and thatuniversal peace
must needs take the formof a government, that
is to say a law-sustaining organization in the

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 UTOPIAN STUDIES 17.1

best sense of theword religious, a government

men andmen through the education
ruling [wo]
and co-ordination of theirminds in a common
conception of human history and human
destination.

H.G. WellssWorldReborn:TheOutline of
Finally,one could review
as what it is as we open up the package: it is
History and Its Companions
a well-made book, small (only 135 pages), and blessedlyfree of thework
of Foucault's followers. Ultimately, it is an interesting book, and one that
to travel?to read and think about the book itself.One
suggests other roads
Webb, AllbertGuerard,FloydDell, and
can joinWalter Lippmann,Beatrice
It isa bookwhich
Carl Beckerwho adoptedthebook and praiseditfulsomely.
cannot be forgotten, and Ross's book effectively brings people intoWells's
world. Those seeking a Utopian vision will find a method?in history.

David C Smith
UniversityMaine
of

PninaWerbner. Pilgrims ofLove: TheAnthropologyofa Global SufiCult.

+
Bloomington: IndianaUP, 2003, xvi 348 pp. $21.95

Readers of this review ought to know at the outset that I approached Werbner s
book as someone who knows rather little about Sufism, so I construed my
as one of commenting on the books merits as an anthropological
assignment
case study and its potential interest to readers of Utopian Studies. My
is an intelligent and valuable multivocal
summary assessment is that the book
account of a transnational (Pakistan, theMiddle East, Africa,
ethnographic
especiallyto studentsof charismatic
andEngland) Sufiorder,of likelyinterest
social movements.
leadership and of religiously-defined
Werbner, a social anthropology at Keele University,
professor
theSufi saintZindapir
England,presentsher studyof thecult surrounding
Sahib in thirteen chapters, all, except the first two and the last, organized
around key concepts of the movement: karamat (a miracle performed by
or
a Muslim saint), nafi (a persons carnal, vital soul spirit), and murid (a
a Sufi saint), among others. Each chapter is subdivided into
disciple of

264

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