72 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Asad Zaidi (pp. 160-173) has reviewed one of Lukacs' important contributions. The Destruction of Reason, which traces the ideological roots of German Nazism through various streams of irrational philosophy. Beginning as a feudal reaction to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, it acquired an anti-bourgeois and anti-socialist trend in the course of historical development. The specificities of the German political and economic structure which was characterised by historical lag and overall backwardness, coupled with junker hegemony resulting in consolidation of the retarded democratic political structure, further contributed towards strengthening irrationalism. At the end of the volume Lukacs1 illuminating discussion with Andras Kovacs (pp. 174-189) has been added by the editors. In this brief interview, many interesting points have been raised. For instance, in autobiographical references, Lukacs points out the paradox that since he came from a typically capitalist family he learnt to despise capitalism from childhood because he knew the negative side of capitalism quite intimately, and unlike many other intellectuals who after being disappointed with socialism, became attached to this or that capitalist current, such a turning back was impossible for him (p. 178). Similarly, referring to political situations, he comments that there are no such times in which nothing can be done, even counterrevolutionary soil can be revolutionary in some respect, but usually the number of people who can be revolutionary in all conditions is very small (p. 186). BRAHMA NAND Dept. of History, ARSD College, New Delhi