What will America be like in 1970? Miss Caldwell's [apocalyptic "The Devil's Advocate"] makes Spengler seem cheerful by comparison. In this novel of fierce prophecy she sees a Communist conspiracy in control in Washington. The courts and the Constitution have been outlawed; family life is directed by the Government; the fifth world war is about to erupt (this one against South America, the rest of the world being subject and in ruins). Tipping her political hand, she offers as her trump of horrors the fact that the Republican party has been banned as of 1958….

[The story] that follows is full of nightmare complexities and melodramatic suspense. Unfortunately, it is also full of repetitions, distortions, contradictions, and downright offenses to common sense. For example, we are told that in the monstrous third and fourth world wars only the United States used atomic weapons—and was itself untouched by a single...