THE Materialist Conception of History is apt to mar the best
historical studies. Professor Arthur Rosenberg's Democracy
and Socialism ( London, 1939) is a well-written and very in-
structive book. Light is cast on the relations between the
Democratic and the Socialist movement; it is shown how both
movements interacted, how for a time they proceeded more or
less in common, and then took separate ways. The attitude
of Marx and Engels to both movements and their relations to
the German Social Democratic Party are set forth. A number
of particular phenomena, and some inter-connections that are
little known, are brought out, as, for instance, the development
and the fate of the Commune in 1871, or the fact that their
struggle against anarchism made the German Social Democrats
disinclined to serious revolutionary movements.

Though the author abstains from commenting on Marx's
theory of history, he shows in every sentence that he believes
in it. This attitude does not derogate from the positive qualities
of the work. The connection that really exists between eco-
nomic conditions and political movements is properly revealed;
for instance, the author shows how, in the revolution of 1848,
the social and economic structure of society involved the split
between the democratic middle class and the labour movement.
The situation, however, is not always equally clear and simple.
According to the Marxist theory it is, of course, sufficient to
confront economic conditions and political development, the
latter being regarded without further examination as the

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