Contents

Editor’s Foreword v
Chapter One. THE STUDY OF THE POLITICAL NOVEL 1
The Importance of the Political Novel 1
The Nature of the Political Novel: Problems of Definition and Selection 1
Characteristics of the Political Novel 3
The Novelist and the Political Scientist 4
The Purposes of This Study 8
Chapter Two. THE NOVEL AS POLITICAL INSTRUMENT 10
The United States 10
Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Civil War 10
Albion Tourgée: The Blunders of Reconstruction 11
Perennial Theme: Corruption 12
Upton Sinclair: Corruption Plus Radicalism 12
Growing Political Consciousness: 1930 to 1954 13
John Steinbeck: The Party Organizer 14
Sinclair Lewis: Native Fascism 14
John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway: Liberal Causes Abroad 15
George Weller: International Communism 16
Norman Mailer: The Extreme Left 17
Novels of the Cold War 17
Great Britain 19
Benjamin Disraeli: Revitalized Toryism 19
Henry James: The Breakup of Victorian Tranquillity 20
Joseph Conrad: Early Cloak and Dagger 21
E. M. Forster: The Problem of Imperialism 22
Aldous Huxley and George Orwell: The Future in Perspective 23
The Continent 23
Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Nihilism and Its Rejection 23
André Malraux: Pro-Communism 24
Ignazio Silone: Disillusionment on the Left 25
Arthur Koestler: The Bolshevik on Trial 26
Africa 26
Alan Paton: The Race Question 27
Chapter Three. THE NOVELIST AS POLITICAL HISTORIAN 28
Great Britain 29
George Eliot: The Early Nineteenth Century in the Midlands 30
Benjamin Disraeli and Anthony Trollope: Whigs v. Tories 30
George Meredith: The Early Radical 31
Mrs. Humphrey Ward: Victorian Portraits 31
H. G. Wells: England in Transition 32
Howard Spring: Labour and the Course of Empire 32
Joyce Cary: The Edwardian Age and After 33
The United States 33
Edgar Lee Masters: Expansion and Conflict 34
Albion Tourgeé: Slavery and Emancipation 34
John W. De Forest: Post-War Corruption 35
Hamlin Garland: Enter the Farmer 36
Winston Churchill and David Phillips: Bosses and Lobbies 36
Jack London: Marxism v. Fascism, Early Phase 37
James L. Ford, Samuel H. Adams, and Upton Sinclair: Oil Men and Anarchists 38
John Dos Passos and James T. Farrell: Communist Infiltration 39
Upton Sinclair and John Dos Passos: Global War and Politics 40
Post-War Directions 40
The Continent and Elsewhere 42
Joseph Conrad: Colonial Politics and Revolution 42
The Soviet State: Its Roots and Growth 43
Marie-Henri Beyle [Stendhal]: Napoleonic Panorama 44
André Malraux: Comintern v. Kuomintang 44
Jean-Paul Sartre: The Shadow of Munich 45
Fascism through Italian Eyes 45
Alan Paton: The Trek of the Boers 46
Richard Kaufmann: The Third Reich 47
Chapter Four. THE NOVEL AS MIRROR OF NATIONAL CHARACTER 48
Great Britain: A Self-Portrait 48
Peaceful Change in the Political Realm 48
The Fruits of Imperialism 50
The United States: A Self-Portrait 51
Forces of Corruption 52
The American Idealist 53
Responsibility at Home and Abroad 53
Italy: A Self-Portrait 55
Spain: An American Portrait 57
Greece: An American Portrait 58
France: A Composite Portrait 58
Russia: A Composite Portrait 59
Union of South Africa: A Self-Portrait 61
Germany: A Self-Portrait 61
Chapter Five. THE NOVELIST AS ANALYST OF GROUP POLITICAL BEHAVIOR 63
Economic Groups 63
The Lumpenproletariat 63
Peasants 64
Labor 65
Proletarians 68
The Middle Class 68
The Rich and Well Born 69
Political Groups 72
Office Holders: Rules and Skills 73
The Mechanics of Control 75
International Communism 76
Analysis of Mass Phenomena 78
Chapter Six. THE NOVELIST AS ANALYST OF INDIVIDUAL POLITICAL BEHAVIOR 79
Motivation 79
Moral Problems and Changing Values 81
The Successful Politician 82
Political Pathology: Deviates, Martyrs, and Authoritarians 84
Men Behind the Scenes 88
The Disillusioned 88
The Role of Woman 91
Chapter Seven. SOME CONCLUSIONS 93
Bibliography 96