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Title: Letters of Sidney Hook: Democracy, Communism, and the Cold War by Edward S. Shapiro ISBN: 1-56324-487-X Publisher: M. E. Sharpe Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $99.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Spirited and erudite defence of democratic ideals
Comment: Sidney Hook's philosophical works, notably those expounding pragmatism and Marxism, are of enduring value and are still in print. But his most consistent writings were his shorter pieces attacking totalitarianism and defending the ideals of a free society. It was a feature of his exemplary life that he wrote an enormous volume of correspondence, where he felt it worthwhile to explain and explicate democratic values.

This book contains a small, chronologically-ordered selection of those letters, which make fascinating reading. The defence of democracy is never less than erudite and thought-provoking. Hook was often criticised for being impatient of those who differed from him, but these letters give no such indication. On the contrary, his unfailing generosity of spirit is evident in the letters reproduced here to his fellow-philosopher and humanist Corliss Lamont, who unfailingly defended the vicissitudes of Stalin and than whom no more egregious apologist for Soviet tyranny existed. The editor, Edward Shapiro provides a useful introduction to each decade's correspondence, and observes that in later years Hook's political writings were dominated by the subject of the Communist threat, and that the spark seemed to be lacking in, for example, Hook's defence of social democracy. I am sure this is right, and equally I am sure that Hook's emphasis was justified. The differences between conservatives and social democrats on economic philosophy are family differences among those who share a commitment to democratic processes and institutions; the differences between that heterogeneous collection of democrats and totalitarianism are fundamental and extreme. Hook's letters provide a powerful contribution to the defence of democratic values.