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Is Socialism Doomed?: The Meaning of Mitterrand by Daniel Singer Review by: Fritz Stern Foreign Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Fall, 1988), p. 191 Published by: Council on Foreign Relations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043724 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Affairs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.118 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:22:11 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Is Socialism Doomed?: The Meaning of Mitterrandby Daniel Singer

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Is Socialism Doomed?: The Meaning of Mitterrand by Daniel SingerReview by: Fritz SternForeign Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Fall, 1988), p. 191Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043724 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 01:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.118 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 01:22:11 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Is Socialism Doomed?: The Meaning of Mitterrandby Daniel Singer

RECENT BOOKS 191

JAHRBUCH DER EUROP?ISCHEN INTEGRATION 1986/87. Edited

by Werner Weidenfeld and Wolfgang Wessels. Bonn: Institute f?r Euro

p?ische Politik/Europa Union Verlag, 1987, 533 pp. DM35. A comprehensive and, in parts, critical survey of what happened during

1986-87 in the various institutions of the EEC. A Baedeker to Brussels'

Europe, prepared by a group of competent experts, most of them German, with a searching analysis by Werner Weidenfeld, one of the editors and a

leading German political scientist. He, too, reflects on the growing estrange ment between the U.S. and Western Europe and on the suddenly reap

pearing dream?primarily in Germany where the dream first appeared? of a Mitteleuropa, presumably a neutralized zone dominated by Germans;

this, too, is part of the lure of Gorbachev's appeal to the European "common

house." A superior reference work.

IS SOCIALISM DOOMED?: THE MEANING OF MITTERRAND. By Daniel Singer. New York: Oxford, 1988, 324 pp. $24.95.

A harsh, well-written, if at times racy, criticism of Mitterrand's abandon ment of progressive, truly socialist policies and his reaching out for centrist

support. Singer attacks the gap between socialist promise and capitalist

performance and pleads for the reinvention of a true socialism aiming still at an egalitarian and classless society. Like John Palmer, Singer wonders?

hopefully?whether "the countries of Western Europe . . . can forge a

radical alternative [to the American model and American pressure] likely to act as a magnet for the other half of Europe, ultimately including the

Soviet Union."

GERMANY AND THE GERMANS: AN ANATOMY OF SOCIETY TODAY. By John Ardagh. New York: Harper & Row, 1987, 478 pp. $24.95

A British francophile, author of several books on France, discovers

today's two Germanies. A journalistic, anecdotal account, with emphasis on

society and culture, not politics. A broad but superficial survey, weak on

the past, strong on local color, regional differences, opinion polls and

prevailing popular attitudes. A host of topics ranging from Christmas celebrations and industrial innovation in West Germany to the nationalist

promotion of sports in East Germany. Ardagh believes that the Federal

Republic is less lively but more democratic than Germany in earlier times: conventional wisdom, amiably and attractively illuminated by telling ex

amples and statistics.

"CONTAINMENT" IM WANDEL. By Martin Beglinger. Stuttgart: Stei

ner, 1988, 341 pp. DM58. A Zurich doctoral dissertation examines the policies toward the Soviet

Union of the Eisenhower Administration, with particular emphasis on how anti-Soviet perceptions and assumptions shaped those policies. The author

argues that Eisenhower, though more conciliatory and less ideological than

John Foster Dulles, did not explore the possibilities that might have been

present after Stalin's death. A useful review of a still controversial era, based mostly on published sources.

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