Just Finished

In this book, published in 1910, Mr. Chesterton hints at his vision of Distributivism, a political philosophy informed by Catholic Social Teaching in which the "means of production should be distributed as widely as possible among the populace [and] neither be hoarded by an oligarchy, nor controlled by the government." This is a real "Third Way," unlike the false one proposed by the likes of Messrs. Clinton and Blair. It requires us to make the radical and revolutionary step of looking back, to the organic society of the Age of Faith, not forward to more mechanization under either Industrial Socialism or Industrial Capitalism.

Chesterton himself admits that "[his] book ends just where it ought to begin," so I will place below that end, because it is such a powerful piece of rhetoric. He begins by describing a contemporary outrage: "A little while ago certain doctors and other persons permitted by modern law to dictate to their shabbier fellow-citizens, sent out an order that all little girls should have their hair cut short. I mean, of course, all little girls whose parents were poor." Below is his blistering response:

Now the whole parable and purpose of these last pages, and indeed of all these pages, is this: to assert that we must instantly begin all over again, and begin at the other end. I begin with a little girl's hair. That I know is a good thing at any rate. Whatever else is evil, the pride of a good mother in the beauty of her daughter is good. It is one of those adamantine tendernesses which are the touchstones of every age and race. If other things are against it, other things must go down. If landlords and laws and sciences are against it, landlords and laws and sciences must go down. With the red hair of one she-urchin in the gutter I will set fire to all modern civilization. Because a girl should have long hair, she should have clean hair; because she should have clean hair, she should not have an unclean home: because she should not have an unclean home, she should have a free and leisured mother; because she should have a free mother, she should not have an usurious landlord; because there should not be an usurious landlord, there should be a redistribution of property; because there should be a redistribution of property, there shall be a revolution. That little urchin with the gold-red hair, whom I have just watched toddling past my house, she shall not be lopped and lamed and altered; her hair shall not be cut short like a convict's; no, all the kingdoms of the earth shall be hacked about and mutilated to suit her. She is the human and sacred image; all around her the social fabric shall sway and split and fall; the pillars of society shall be shaken, and the roofs of ages come rushing down, and not one hair of her head shall be harmed.

The book's table of contents gives some indication of its prophetic nature:

PART ONE: THE HOMELESSNESS OF MAN

I The Medical Mistake
II Wanted: An Unpractical Man
III The New Hypocrite
IV The Fear of the Past
V The Unfinished Temple
VI The Enemies of Property
VII The Free Family
XIII The Wildness of Domesticity
IX History of Hudge and Gudge
X Oppression by Optimism
XI The Homelessness of Jones

PART TWO: IMPERIALISM, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT MAN

I The Charm of Jingoism
II Wisdom and the Weather
III The Common Vision
IV The Insane Necessity

PART THREE: FEMINISM, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT WOMAN

I The Unmilitary Suffragette
II The Universal Stick
III The Emancipation of Domesticity
IV The Romance of Thrift
V The Coldness of Chloe
VI The Pedant and the Savage
VII The Modern Surrender of Woman
VIII The Brand of the Fleur-de-Lis
IX Sincerity and the Gallows
X The Higher Anarchy
XI The Queen and the Suffragettes
XII The Modern Slave

PART FOUR: EDUCATION, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT THE CHILD

I The Calvinism of To-day
II The Tribal Terror
III The Tricks of Environment
IV The Truth About Education
V An Evil Cry
VI Authority the Unavoidable
VII The Humility of Mrs. Grundy
VIII The Broken Rainbow
IX The Need for Narrowness
X The Case for the Public Schools
XI The School for Hypocrites
XII The Staleness of the New Schools
XIII The Outlawed Parent
XIV Folly and Female Education

PART FIVE: THE HOME OF MAN

I The Empire of the Insect
II The Fallacy of the Umbrella Stand
III The Dreadful Duty of Gudge
IV A Last Instance
V Conclusion

THREE NOTES

I On Female Suffrage
II On Cleanliness in Education
III On Peasant Proprietorship

The book is available on line here in its entirity: What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton - Project Gutenberg.