Our Evolving Civilization: An Introduction to Geopacifics: Geographical Aspects of the Pathtoward World Peace by Griffith TaylorReview by: H. W. HewetsonThe Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d'Economique etde Science politique, Vol. 14, No. 2 (May, 1948), pp. 269-270Published by: Wiley on behalf of Canadian Economics AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/138020 .
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Reviews of Books 269
of history in regard to the Canadian farmer that even the most careful of sttudents must constantly be on guard to distinguish the two. The idea that the Canadian pioneer was nearly self-sufficient belongs in folk-lore, not in history.
One or two other points may be raised more in query than in criticism. The opening date (1613) appears a trifle arbitrary since the introductory chapter deals in twelve pages with Indian agriculture as at that date and with the interval to the coming of the Loyalists as well. Might Chapters XI to XIII not have lbeen combined to advantage? So many influences were at work in the eighteen- fifties that the attempt to separate them out too sharply mnakes overlapping inevitable. These three chapters appear to be the only part of the study where repetition threatens.
Minor criticisms raise no question concerning the excellence of this volume either in content or in form. Regarding form of presentation the author is to be particularly commended for his care in documentation and for the extent and analytical nature of both bibliography and index.
V. C. FoWKE
The University of Saskatchewan.
OurEvolving Civilization: An Introduction to Geopacifics: Geographical Aspects of the Path toward World Peace. By GRIFFITH TAYLOR. Toronto: Uni- versity of Toronto Press. 1946. Pp. xv, 370. ($4.25)
GEOGRAPHY, as treated by members of the modern environmentalist school, is almost synonymous with pantology. It is commonplace nowadays to say that any subject which is the least bit social must, to be sound, be built on a solid groundwork of geography. But the geographers are not content merely to pre- pare the foundations. They interest themselves in all parts of the superstructures as well. They will tell the geologist how the earth was formed, the philologist why a given language has a certain structure, the theologian why the religion in a certain place is what it is. And anthropology and history have been taken over completely. All this gives geography a fascination of its own. A new book on the subject is always of interest.
Professor Taylor is a prominent member of the environmentalist school of geographers. His many previous publications show how fertile he is in ideas. To those familiar with these earlier works the present book may possibly be something of a disappointment, for it contains little that the author has not said before. However, it is a useful summary of Taylorana, and for the uniniti- ated reader it provides as good an introduction as any to the field.
What is new in the book is the word "geopiacifics." (The accent is used throughout the text and seems desirable in the interests of pronunciation.) This is a word coined by the author as "an antidote to the perverted geography of German geopolitics." But geopacifics cannot be sttudied until the student acquires some knowledge of geography. The purpose of the book seeiiis to be to give the necessary background, or rather enough of the background to whet the student's appetite for more.
The book is divided into four parts. The first three deal with the evolution of our civilization in the past. The last part contains some speculations about
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270 The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Scienice
the future. Part I deals chiefly with geology, meteorology, and anthropology. In it the Nazi racial myth is thoroughly exploded. In Part II is found history, philology, religion, and government. The central theme is the organization of the world into nations. Urban communities are discussed in Part III. This part contains a summary of Professor Taylor's views on the growth and decay of cities. This topic, while highly interesting in itself, is perhaps somewhat out of place in the general theme of the book. Attention is focussed more on the plans of cities than on their functions in the national or regional picture.
Part IV is entitled "Geopolitics and Geopacifics." In it we are given the salient features of German geopolitics and some discussion of the war potentials of various countries in terms of coal, oil, steel, etc. About geop'acifics itself there is little in the book other than the assertion that the subject is worth investigating. The author feels strongly that war does nothing to hasten the evolution of society. He shows the parts of the world that geography has destined to produce leaders, but warns them that nothing is to be gained and much may be lost by trying to convert themselves into conquerors. He also discusses the post-war European boundary question, the parts of the world that are still open to settle- ment, and makes some forecasts of future world populations. These latter matters appear in the author's previous works.
Professor Taylor reveals himself as not being an absolute geographic deter- minist. He says, "If the Germans had remained satisfied with the slow but definite progress towards rehabilitation which they were making under the Weimar Republic, they would almost certainly have dominated Europe" (pp. 355-6). But they were not satisfied, so apparently the role is to be given to Russia. This looks like an admission that human beings do, after all, have some influence on the evolution of civilization.
There are over a hundred figures in the book, the great majority of them sketch maps. It is altogether unfortunate that these were reproduced on such a small scale, some bei ng as small as 2 Y4" x 1 12". That is scarcely large enough to show the world with many kinds of cross-hatching and innumerable letters and symbols. Even a large magnifying glass is not always sufficient to make things clear.
The slips in the book are of a trivial character. For instance, we find (p. 219) with reference to Charlottetown that, though small, "it ranks with Montreal and Toronto as the capital of an independent province."
The word, geop'acifics, is intriguing. Now that we have been introduced to it we hope that it wvill not be too long before an analysis of it appears. And the person best qualified to produce it is undoubtedly Professor Taylor himiself.
H. W. HEWETSON
The Universitv of Alberta.
Business Finance and Banking. By NEIL H. JACOBY and RAYMOND J. SAULNIER.
New York: National Bureau of Economic Research. 1947. Pp. xviii, 241.
($3.50) Tins book is the "capstone study" of the Business Financing Project of the National Buireau of Economic Research, undertaken as a portion of the Financial
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