Since Quincy Howe became editor of Simon & Schuster, that industrious publishing firm has brought out three books expressing respectively suspicion of the motives, amusement at the manners, and rage at the methods, of the massive, muddling, Machiavellian empire of George VI. First was Howe's own England Expects Every American To Do His Duty. Next was Margaret Halsey's good-natured account of her stay in England, With Malice Toward Some. Most recent is Robert Briffault's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire.
With the exasperating social psychology that Mr. Howe considers strong evidence...