Five ideas that change the world

EVERY age has its dominant political themes the notion of progress, for instance, in the nineteenth century or, further back, the idea of the divine right of kings or the vision of Christendom.
These notions work strongly in men's minds and are the most active agents of political change. In our own day, nationalism with its pendant anti colonialism-together with the con cept of modern technological progress are changing the face of the world. Communism is at work as well to divert these forces into its own channels. There is hardly a community today that is not being sharply refashioned according to one or other of these major political themes.
But however powerful ideas may be as instruments of revolution, they have to keep their roots in fact-in human need, in scientific reality, in the enduring aspirations of man.ind. Some of the world's current ideas are in fact operating in a dangerous vacuum. Communism, for all its force, derives its theories from facts already a century out of date. Nationalism, in spite of its value as a principle of freedom in international society, has lost touch with the economic, social and moral realities of a world made one by science and, like Communism, is operating dangerously free from the restraints of fact and reason.
The purpose of this book is to assess the relevance of five master themes of our day. The essays, originally delivered as lectures at the University College of Ghana, attempt to place nationalism, industrialism, colonialism, communism and internationalism in their historical perspective, then to show them at work as a ferment in modern society and finally to examine them for the light they may throw on future developments.