ABSTRACT
An Englishman in touch with the British Labour party cannot but be struck, in visiting America, by the profound difference between the outlook to which he is accustomed at home and that which he finds among American ‘radicals’. To begin with: the word ‘radical’ has, to British ears, an old-fashioned Victorian flavor—it suggests a series of men extending from Francis Place, the wire-pulling tailor of the Reform-Bill time, through John Stuart Mill, to Joseph Chamberlain in his youth. Since the beginning of the present century, the word has been obsolete. But in America it lingers, like many other archaic forms of speech and thought. To an Englishman visiting America, I should say: ‘Study the language of Shakespeare and the thought of Montesquieu. Then you will be able to understand such words as “chores” and such beliefs as that America is dedicated to Liberty, both of which you might otherwise find unintelligible.’
