Sooner or later the philosophy and the method of German geopolitics were destined to be adopted by American writers and applied to this continent -- to the American Raum. This, in effect, is what Professor Spykman of the Institute of International Studies at Yale has done in the present work. Though a pioneer work in so far as American scholarship is concerned, Professor Spykman's treatise presents about as good a case for the geopolitical interpretation of America's position in world power politics as can be made. At the same time it exemplifies the limitations and dangers of that approach, especially in its failure to give due weight to the historical traditions and psychological peculiarities which are often as much a part of a nation's power potential as its geographical position, natural resources and industrial apparatus. His failure fully to take account of these intangible factors may in part account for Professor Spykman's tendency to emphasize the weaknesses of the American position.
