The Sex Factor in Human Life is an excellent handbook, in outline and catechism form, for study groups of college men. It faces frankly many questions frequently raised by college students and not often included in such books. It omits some others equally important. There are weaknesses in social and ethical logic, but its didactic purpose is not seriously impaired thereby. It includes a chapter on religious sanctions which, though extremely broad and cautious in its approach and interpretation, will, in the reviewer's opinion, limit its use principally to Y.M.C.A.'s and denominational schools. Children by Chance or by Choice is a three hundred and fifty page book. It should have been thirty-five, or better three and a half. The style is prolix, repetitious, kittenish, italicized. It is based on asseveration with very little definite factual material and no documentation. The conclusions are for the most part good, but the argument labored, bromidic, and not always sound. Arguments from Nature, Bible and Morality, by analogy and on prophecy, are overworked. Aside from this, the book is poor. The author ends by arguing that birth control is inevitable. This being the case, one feels there is even less excuse for the book. It may, however, reach effectively certain elements in the population who have more time than brains, and who should be reached. A ten-cent pamphlet with Mr. Smith's best passages would reach more and faster. NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SIGRID W. ELIOT Education for Social Work. By JESSE FREDERICK STEINER. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1921. Pp. 99. $1.00. The thinness of this little volume is significant, for it typifies in an excellent manner the smallness of the body of information and opinion up to this time on the subject of training for social work. For Dr. Steiner has said about all the significant things that are to be said, to date, on the subject. There may be difference of opinion within the ranks of social workers with some of the positions of the author, but it cannot well be said that he has failed to discuss at least the outstanding aspects of professional training of this new profession. The purpose is stated in the Preface "to bring about a growing recognition of the scientific basis upon which the structure of social work must be built." Throughout the book the position is maintained that the professional character of social work depends essentially upon a training that has scientific foundations to the same extent that the other professions have, although it is recognized that it will take some time to reach the standards attained in the training for the older fields. Dr. Steiner does not hesitate to pronounce criticism on some of the methods employed in the past, and continued to the present, but the point of view is essentially constructive. The difficulties that have been encountered by all who have pioneered in the field are recognized and their point of view sympathetically interpreted. The difference in the point of view of the earlier schools that grew out of training courses established by social workers, and that of the universities which have more recently entered the field is recognized. The position is frankly taken that the universities must assume the chief responsibility for this training as they have for legal, medical, educational, and engineering training. The contributions, however, that the schools maintained by practical workers have made are clearly recognized, and the need of the universities making use of it is pointed out. Probably the greatest contribution made in the study is the analysis of the problem of securing facilities for laboratory and clinical study. Two excellent chapters are given to an analysis of this problem and to constructive suggestions for the establishment of social-work laboratories and clinics. The distinction between these two types of facilities is one which has not always been clearly recognized in the training schools. CECIL C. NORTH OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Social Legislation in Illinois; Needs and Opportunities in 1921. By SEBA ELDRIDGE. Rockford, Ill.: W. H. Shimmin & Co. Pp. 110. $1.50. The chapters of this book were originally written for a local newspaper and were evidently meant to be educative to the general public. The book is therefore as the author states in the Preface, rather descriptive and explanatory than a comprehensive or exhaustive analysis of problems dealt with. The general method is to present the social conditions (child welfare labor conditions, local government, etc.) as they now exist in Illinois, so far as their legal aspect is concerned, and then to state what legislation the author thinks is needed to remedy the conditions. There is no effort, however, to study the relation of public opinion to these legislative proposals. Probably the chief value of the work consists in the information it provides of the meaning and effect of a considerable body of "social" legislation already on the statute books of the state. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS S. C. RATCLIFFE The Truths We Live By. By JAY WILLIAM HUDSON, PH.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1921. Pp. 308. $3.00. The interest of this book for the sociologist centers in the fact that it is an attempt of an idealist to prove the claims of idealism by purely pragmatic arguments, by asserting that its truths are those that men actually live by. But this pragmatism of its idealist author is somewhat vitiated by the fact that he looks upon the reason of natural science and the reason of philosophy, poetry, and religion, as different in kind— also by the preservation of the absolutist conception of God as identical with the totality of things. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO RALPH W. NELSON A Community Civics. By EDWIN W. ADAMS. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. Pp. vi+385. $1.32. A well conceived and most interesting discussion of the civic problems emerging in the common life of an American community. Valuable as a text for schools or for the training of immigrants in the ways and ideas of America. Problems of To-day. By MOORFIELD STOREY. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1920. Pp. 258. $1.50. Pertinent but prosaic discussions of some of the present pressing problems of America, such as lawlessness, race prejudice, and the labor question. Old at Forty or Young at Sixty. By ROBERT S. CARROLL. New York: Macmillan, 1920. Pp. 147. $2.25. A fresh and scientific yet very readable and practical discussion of the physical, mental, and spiritual problems of persons of forty years of age. Higher Race Development. By R. SWINBURNE CLYMER. Quakertown, Pa.: Philosophical Publishing Co., 1919. Pp. 168. $1.50. An interesting plea for a more adequate and extended knowledge of sex and sex questions by the average man and woman. The League of Nations at Work. By ARTHUR SWEETSER. New York: Macmillan, 1920. Pp. vii+215. $1.75. An interesting and illuminating analysis of the main facts and present processes of the League of Nations. The Monroe Doctrine and the Great War. By A. B. HALL. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1920. Pp. xiii+177. $0.75. A critical historical discussion of the emergence, changes in, and values of the Monroe Doctrine in the foreign relations of the United States, including the new relations created by the League of Nations. Careers for Women. By CATHERINE FILENE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1920. Pp. xv+576. $4.00. A collection of interesting and accurate descriptions of possible life-service opportunities open to women in post-war United States. Written by women now actually engaged in these various careers. Hygiene of Communicable Diseases. By FRANCIS M. MUNSON. New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1920. Pp. xiv+793. $5.50. A scientific medical treatise on the facts and methods of hygienic procedure in modern communicable diseases. Social interests and problems are well recognized and incorporated. The Nervous Housewife. By ABRAHAM MYERSON, M.D. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1920. Pp. 273. $2.25. This volume is an interesting and significant description and analysis of the problem of the American housewife. Addressed to the general public rather than to the smaller group of specialists, the subject is discussed in a semi-popular style, although the findings of psychiatry and psychoanalysis are relied upon for diagnosis. Constructive and helpful suggestions are made for the remedying of irritating situations. RECENT LITERATURE NOTES AND ABSTRACTS A TENTATIVE SCHEME FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE LITERA TURE OF SOCIOLOGY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 1. The Natural History and the Psychology of Sex 2. The Historical Family and Family as an Institution 3. The Modern Family and Its Problems III. PEOPLES AND CULTURAL GROUPS 1. Ethnology and Folklore 2. Histories of Cultural Groups (Kulturgeschichte) 3. Immigrants and Immigration 4. Colonial Problems and Missions 5. Comparative Studies of Cultural Traits; Religion, Mores, Customs, and Traditions IV. CONFLICT AND ACCOMMODATION GROUPS 1. Classes and the Class Struggle; Labor and Capital 2. Nationalities and Races 3. Political Parties and Political Doctrines 4. Religious Denominations and Sects V. COMMUNITIES AND TERRITORIAL GROUPS VI. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS 1. Home and Housing 2. The Church and the Local Community 3. The School and the Social Center 4. Play, the Playhouse, and Playgrounds 6. Other Institutions VII. SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE SOCIAL PROCESS 1. The Cultural Process: Education and Religion 2. The Political Process: Politics and the Formation of Public Opinion 3. The Economic Process: Economic and Industrial Organization 4. Personal and Social Disorganization! Social Pathology, i.e., Family Disorganization and Crime 5. Collective Behavior! Social Change and Social Progress; Fashion, Reform, and Revolution |