The Council appointed a committee to outline a plan for obtaining fellowships for post-doctorate work in social sciences. Of this committee Professor A. B. Hall is chairman, and the other members are Professor John R. Commons and Professor W. F. Ogburn. The officers of the Council are: chairman, Professor Charles E. Merriam, University of Chicago; secretary, Professor Horace Secrist, Northwestern University; treasurer, Professor Edmund E. Day, University of Michigan.

Suggestions for the development of the work of the Council are invited by its members. The Council also stands ready to advise regarding any especially significant or large-scale project in the field of social research. The next meeting of the Council will be held in November.

The American Council of Learned Societies.-The Council has been asked by the Carnegie Corporation to make a survey and report on the work of American learned societies in the field of the humanities and the social sciences. Information regarding the societies concerned, either in whole or in part, with the natural sciences is available through the National Research Council; but no systematic attempt has been made to collect information of this kind in the field of the humanities and the social sciences. It is hoped that a comprehensive report would be useful not only to the Carnegie Corporation in considering its various problems, but, if printed, to the individual societies, and in general to those interested in the promotion of scholarship in the United States.

Mr. Waldo G. Leland, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been put in charge of the undertaking, and will begin his active duties July 1, 1924.

L'Institut International de Sociologie.-The officers of the International Institute of Sociology for the year 1924 are: president, Lord Balfour, president of the Sociological Society of London; vice-presidents, Antonio Dellepiane, formerly professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Salomon Reinach, member of the Institute of France, and Maurice Vauthier, professor of administrative law, University of Brussels; general secretary, René Worms, editor of the Revue Internationale de Sociologie; treasurer, P. L. Manouvrier, professor of physical anthropology, the School of Anthropology; and critic, Charles Gide.

Harry E. Barnes, Smith College, Kenyon L. Butterfield, Massachusetts State Agricultural College; and Charles J. Galpin, the Federal Department of Agriculture, have recently been elected associates of the International Institute of Sociology.

The American Country Life Association.-The Proceedings of the New Orleans Conference of 1921 on the subject of "Town and Country

Relationships" and the Proceedings of the New York Conference of 1922 on "Education of the Rural Community" have been completed and mailed. Through a grant from the trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation the publication of the Proceedings of the St. Louis Conference on "The Rural Home" is assured.

President Butterfield has asked a committee of the Association to study the whole field of rural education with the major objective in view of stating, in outline at least, an adequate system of education for rural America. Included in this statement will be a careful consideration of the educational functions of churches, since the topic for the next annual conference at Columbus, Ohio, November 7-11, 1924, is "Religion in Country Life." This topic, put in the form of a thesis by Dr. Butterfield, becomes: "The Vital Importance of Moral and Spiritual Forces in the Development of Country Life."

Russell Sage Foundation.-The trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation at their April meeting appointed Shelby M. Harrison as vice-general director of the Foundation, the appointment to take effect from May 1, 1924. For the present Mr. Harrison will continue as director of the department of surveys and exhibits, and in charge of the studies of social conditions of the regional plan of New York and its environs. Mr. Harrison graduated at Northwestern University in 1906 and did graduate work in economics and sociology at Boston and Harvard universities. His first experience in social surveying was with the Pittsburgh Survey in 1908. From 1910 to 1912 he was one of the editorial staff of the Survey. He joined the staff of the Foundation in 1912 when the department of surveys and exhibits was established and he was appointed its director by the trustees.

Institute for Social Research.-The Society for Social Research of the University of Chicago will hold its second Institute for Social Research in Chicago, August 18-27, 1924. While the Society is composed mainly of advanced graduate students and former graduate students of the University, participation in the Institute is open to all interested in sociological research. The purpose of the Institute is to provide a clinic for the presentation and criticism of methods of investigation. Persons planning to attend the Institute are invited to submit statements of their research projects and plans of research to the secretary of the Society for Social Research, Box 98, University of Chicago.

An Experiment in Publication.-The Republic Publishing Company, 421 W. 21st Street, New York, is initiating an interesting experiment of bringing out new and worth-while books in paper covers to sell for

$1.00. The publisher states that the attempt is "to find out if the comparatively restricted sale of good books in this country is influenced by the question of price." The first volume in the series is Social Discovery by Eduard C. Lindeman.

University of Missouri.-The German publishing firm of W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart and Berlin, announce the publication of a German translation of Professor C. A. Ellwood's book, The Reconstruction of Religion. The translation was made upon the initiative and under the direction of Professor Eugen Schwiedland, professor of economics in the University of Vienna, Austria, and secretary of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. A few copies of the book have recently been received in the United States.

The American Book Company announce the publication on the first of September of a revised edition of Professor Ellwood's Sociology and Modern Social Problems. This is the third revision of this text.

University of Nebraska.-Professor J. O. Rankin has compiled a series of pamphlets on farm life in the state, based on studies of 1,145 homes in ten areas. Number 185, "The Nebraska Farm Family," deals with some phases of land tenure. In Number 191 Professor Rankin makes a comparison of living conditions of owners, part-owners, and tenants. In Number 196 is a discussion of "Nebraska Farm Tenancy, Some Community Phases."

University of Southern California.-Dr. Erle Fiske Young of the faculty of the University of Chicago has been elected assistant professor of sociology. His is the sixth chair in sociology that has been created at the University of Southern California since the department was established in 1915.

Dr. William C. Smith is giving half-time as expert investigator for the Pacific Coast Race Relations Survey.

Under the direction of Drs. C. M. Case and W. C. Smith, new courses are being organized in the field of race and national heritages.

University of Washington.-The department of sociology through its society, the Alpha Kappa Delta has begun the publication of a quarterly news sheet in mimeograph form.

The department, in co-operation with the social service agencies, plans to compile and publish a Hand-book of Social Resources of the City of Seattle. Mr. H. A. Waldkoenig is directing the work.

REVIEWS

Anthropology. By A. L. KROEBER. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1923. Pp. viii+523. $4.00.

To the sociologists who are alert to the value of anthropological material and methodology in analyzing the problems in their own field of observation and study, Professor Kroeber's volume will come as one of the most welcome books of the year. That the anthropologists are massing a wealth of material that is of the utmost importance is being more and more recognized by the students of sociology, as the growing interest in the cultural approach to the subject shows. But thus far the anthropological material has been more or less scattered, or published in form not altogether suitable for use in the classroom. Professor Kroeber has brought the material together, and in a lucid and simple style presents it all so that even the most elementary student can understand. The book is admirably adapted for use as a textbook, yet at the same time is free from the formalized and hackneyed style that so often characterizes textbooks. The one factor detracting from the volume is the absence of footnotes and bibliography.

The author begins his discussion with a consideration of the scope and character of anthropology, pointing out the confusion that so often results from the failure to separate biological and social factors. To him the "specific task and place in the sun for anthropology" is the interpretation of the social phenomena into which both organic and social causes enter. The remainder of the book is largely given over to a discussion of this, and the methodology to be employed in untangling these factors. The history of man and of man's early culture are traced out in the first chapters, and in a most concise and readable manner. This gives background to the chapters on living races, and race problems which follow. Here, after appraising the biological and social elements, Professor Kroeber concludes that "most of the alleged existing evidence on race endowment is likely to be worthless." Cultural factors seem to outweigh the biological. This leads directly to the detailed consideration of culture.

Cultural diffusion and parallelism are treated at length. To the author, diffusion is the mechanism of greatest importance. Several

chapters are written to illustrate the principle, and these include discussions of the spread of the alphabet, the arch, and other cultural traits. In describing the growth of a primitive American Indian religion, Professor Kroeber switches slightly from his main thesis, the separation of organic and social factors in society, and becomes engrossed in the problem of the time element in the spread of culture traits. The manner in which this entire problem of diffusion is handled, however, is most praiseworthy. It is treated simply, yet in sufficient detail to make for perfect clarity. The final two chapters on the growth of civilization, in which the cumulative nature of culture is described, are particularly valuable in demonstrating the importance of the cultural factor in understanding human society, and make evident the necessity of understanding cultural borrowing before attempting to interpret it.

Professor Kroeber's book deserves most careful reading by all sociologists. It is tolerant, scholarly, and well written. And the reader who will couple it with Lowie's Primitive Society, Goldenweiser's Early Civilization, Wissler's Man and Culture, and Ogburn's Social Change will provide himself with an adequate background that will aid greatly in any analysis of social relationships. These volumes, with practically no overlapping, constitute a most valuable source of material for the sociologist.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

MALCOLM M. WILLEY

Introduction to Rural Sociology. By PAUL L. VOGT. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1922. Pp. xv+457. $3.00.

In 1917, Dr. Vogt, then recently professor of rural economics and sociology in the Ohio State University, published the first edition of this volume. It was one of the early volumes in this field and met with a wide reception and use because of the fine scholarship displayed throughout its pages, its substantial qualities, its contributions to the understanding of the rural field, and its fine readable style. In its twenty-eight chapters it discussed the main features of the life of rural society. Dr. Vogt had had much experience in the rural field by reason of his survey and investigative work in Ohio, and was qualified to speak authoritatively because of his first-hand knowledge of his subjects. He gave especially valuable treatments to the affairs of the rural church and to the conditions and life of the villages -the halfway places between country and city. The present volume issued in 1922 is a revision of the former one. The chapter headings and subheadings are the same. But