The Professional Man in the Modern State

Abstract

THOSE men of science who are familiar with the study of "The Professions" which Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders and Mr. P. A. Wilson gave in 1933 will welcome the survey of "The English Middle Classes "which Mr. R. Lewis and Mr. A. Maude have recently made*. While this new book does not diminish the need for a new edition of the earlier work, some of the changes in the professions which have occurred during the last sixteen years are reviewed and some of the new problems which have emerged are discussed, though in a wider context. Moreover, passages in the book are quite as pertinent to discussions on the recent report of the Royal Commission on Population or on the place of voluntary organisations in Britain to-day which the publication'of Lord Beveridge's "Voluntary Action"and its supplementary volume have provoked. There are shrewd observations on education, on the Civil Service and on issues raised by the nationalization of industry, and no scientific worker who is concerned with the defence of freedom, whether in the universities or in its wider context in public and social life, can fail to read much of this book with deep interest and appreciation.