The New Society

Walther Rathenau begins with a test for a socialized society: income should depend on work. His larger concern is the inherited division between those who possess wealth and education and those confined to lifelong labour. In this study of Germany's social reconstruction, he argues for changes to property, inheritance and schooling, linking economic reform to the development of the human spirit.

The discussion also examines the demands of democracy. Rathenau criticizes political habits shaped by obedience and grievance, then considers how people with knowledge and experience might serve a divided society. His account of public crowds, party rivalries and leadership gives the argument an uneasy tension between popular power and trained judgment. Presented in Arthur Windham's English translation, the book offers readers interested in socialism a sustained argument about the responsibilities that should accompany a new social order.