The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 475

Book Reviews

Brief introductory notes, summarizing constitutional history
in each country, precede translations. The comments are good
and authoritative but are excessively concise when compared
with the bulk of legal terminology following. More lengthy anal-
yses and interpretations of the meanings of individual documents,
showing their significance and relation to one another would
have added greatly to the over-all value of the book. The Intro-
duction, which organizes the Latin "passion for constitution-
making," only partially fills this need.
This volume is long overdue and is to be welcomed. So also is
the interest in the politics and government of Latin America
which is recognized by this publication. With additional study
and writing on the less glamorous but more fundamental politi-
cal and organizational problems of Latin America, a better com-
prehension of modern governmental problems in that area will
follow. The study of Latin American governments is a growing
academic emphasis and, as a useful facility of this new movement,
The Constitutions of the Americas deserves credit and recog-
nition.
JOE W. NEAL
The University of Texas
Years of Crisis: An Outline of International History, 1919g-945.
By Kenneth Ingram. New York (The Macmillan Co.), 1947.
Pp. 487.
Today, as yesterday, we face the possibility of another World
War. Today, as yesterday, we are witnessing a sequence of events
which remind us all too clearly of the period between the first
and second World Wars. These events are complicated and they
are best understood in the light of developments and conditions
existing during the last thirty years. If we are to avoid further
complications ending in disaster, we must bring to bear upon the
present situation all of the knowledge and understanding that is
now available. It is therefore exceedingly important that com-
paratively recent events be brought together in an orderly man-
ner and presented for whatever benefit they may have for our
generation.
Years of Crisis is a splendid survey of international history
during the period from 1919 to 1945. The first half of this book,

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