In what must be ranked as a foremost classic of twentieth-centuiy political
philosophy. George Santayana. in the preface to his last major work prior to his death, makes plain the limits as well as the aims of Dominations and
Powers: "All that it professes to contain is glimpses of tragedy and comedy
played unawares by governments; and a continual intuitive reduction of
political maxims and institutions to the intimate spiritual fruits that they
are capable of bearing."
Completed at midpoint in the century, but serving as his final masterpiece.
Santayana's volume offers an ominous account of the weakness of the Westand its similarities in substance if not always in form with totalitarian systems
of the East. Few analyses of concepts, such as government by the people; the
price of peace and the suppression of warfare; the nature of elites and limits of egalitarianism; and the nature of authority in free societies, are more
comprehensive or compelling. This is a carefully rendered statement on tasks
of leadership for free societies that takes on added meaning after the fall of communism.
The author of a definitive biography ofSantayana, John McCormlck provides
the sort of deep background that makes possible an assessment ofDominations
and Powers. He permits us better to appreciate the place of this work at the
start no less than conclusion ofSantayana's long career. For the author of The
L^e ojReason himself admits to having led a life in unreason, deeply affected
by the war of 19 14-19 18, and then again. 1939-1945. McCormlck provides in his opening essay one chapter in the story of Santayana's exile from his AngloAmerican homeland, an embittered figure in search of options to annihilation
at the military level and an alternative to false and fatuous Ideologies at the
spiritual level. We know better now how to cope with this profound, yet
disturbing classic in political thought.