Industrial civilisation had given the growing and working generation a certain amount of leisure, and education enough to conceive of a choice in the use of that leisure; but had offered them no guidance in making their choice.
We are faced, as I write, with the hideous danger that fighting may blaze up again throughout the whole Eurasian continent, and that the young men and girls of Europe may have no more choice in the way they spend their time than they had from 1914 to 1918 or the serfs of Pharaoh had in ancient Egypt.

But if that immediate danger is avoided, I dream that in Europe and in America a conscious and systematic discussion by the young thinkers of our time of the conditions of a good life for an unprivileged population may be one of the results of the new vision of human nature and human possibilities which modern science and modern industry have forced upon us.
Within each nation, industrial organisation may cease to be a confused and wasteful struggle of interests, if it is consciously related to a chosen way of life for which it offers to every worker the material means.

International relations may cease to consist of a constant plotting of evil by each nation for its neighbours, if ever the youth of all nations know that French, and British, and Germans, and Russians, and Chinese, and Americans, are taking a conscious part in the great adventure of discovering ways of living open to all, and which all can believe to be good.
GRAHAM WALLAS.
_August_ 1920.
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART I _THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM_ CHAPTER I IMPULSE AND INSTINCT IN POLITICS CHAPTER II POLITICAL ENTITIES CHAPTER III NON-RATIONAL INFERENCE IN POLITICS CHAPTER IV THE MATERIAL OF POLITICAL REASONING CHAPTER V THE METHOD OF POLITICAL REASONING PART II _POSSIBILITIES OF PROGRESS_ CHAPTER I POLITICAL MORALITY CHAPTER II REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT CHAPTER III OFFICIAL THOUGHT CHAPTER IV NATIONALITY AND HUMANITY SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS _( Introduction, page 1)_ The study of politics is now in an unsatisfactory position.

Throughout Europe and America, representative democracy is generally accepted as the best form of government; but those who have had most experience of its actual working are often disappointed and apprehensive.

Democracy has not been extended to non-European races, and during the last few years many democratic movements have failed.
This dissatisfaction has led to much study of political institutions; but little attention has been recently given in works on politics to the facts of human nature.