Continuing a tradition now more than two hundred years old, Penguin Books have recently published World Events, The Annual Register of the Year, 1959 (10s.). In a broad sweep of nearly 600 pages it sets out to cover the main events and developments in the world during that year.
The first 56 pages recount the chief happenings in this country during 1959, and a further 300 pages are devoted to events in the rest of the world. There are subsequent chapters on developments in science and the arts, together with a section on economic matters containing some extremely useful factual information on British trade and industry. Finally, amongst some other miscellaneous items, there is a chronicle of events over the year and a comprehensive index.
Living with events from day to day, it is often difficult to see their significance as a whole. Even more's this the case when the events themselves occur so rapidly that one is hard pressed to keep up with them let alone succeed in remembering them or putting them in relationship one with the other. The virtue of a book such as this is in helping us first, to remember many things we have forgotten and second, to discern more clearly the sweep and progression of events against the background of time.
The value of the book, therefore, is for those who are constantly in need of the happenings of the past to illustrate and explain the events of the present. As such it is a useful book for all Socialists and a particularly useful one for those engaged in writing and speaking on behalf of the Party.
Stan Hampson
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