The Raft and Socrates Asks Why are imaginary conversations revolving around Britain’s role in the Second World War. In The Raft six survivors from a torpedoed ship in the mid-Atlantic discuss the difficulties and moral dilemmas of a soldier life. Socrates Asks Why is a conversation between Socrates, Voltaire, Johnson and Lincoln in which they look forward to the new world that will be created after the war, and ask what exactly they are fighting for.       Eric Robert Russell Linklater (1899 – 1974) was a British poet and writer. Before the war he had written a novel (Judas) in which he condemned the desertion of Czechoslovakia in the name of appeasement. He was later employed by the War Office Public Relations department to write ‘instant histories’ of the war. Published by Macmillan in 1944. No Dust jacket. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects.