Author name: R.W. Morrell

Not unnaturally both these publications are concerned with the political philosophies adopted by each group, with the Anarchists being the rather more confused due to their habit of adopting different tendencies. However, both books deserve mention.

Following her excellent biographical study of Thomas Paine, Audrey Williamson has now given us one on another radical reformer, John Wilkes. Unlike Paine, Wilkes has been the central subject of many a learned book and article.

This book reprints the pamphlets on Hardie, Paine, Burns (John not Robert), Lovett, Place, Owen and the Webbs, and so has particular value to students of Paine. It is, though, a great pity that the essays on Carlile and Cobbett could not have been included.

Both of the studies reviewed heroes I found very interesting and they are no doubt of considerable value. Hamburger’s study lends itself to consistent arguementatIon, far more easily than does that of Miss Hollis’s and therefore I suppose one is inclined to consider it the more readable.

“America and Its People” is the type of book one finds easy to read, in fact it is of a type not easy to lay down once started. The only criticism I level at it is that it is too short – for my liking. Paine features large in it.