Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/854

 840 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

found and widespread, liberty increases, democracy fortifies itself, the prospects of peace and prosperity gain ground. But at the same time it behooves nations to be armed for war, for they may be called upon to fight for their independence. The practical politics which this theory of social evolution enforces are: bodily exercise and the accumulation of experiences in the individual life, free trade, and decentralization in the collective existence.

This volume, in spite of interesting suggestions especially as to the nature and conflicts of social groups, belongs to an outgrown phase of social theory. It recalls the days when sociology was emerging from the philosophy-of-history stage. For anthropology, for social origins, for social psychology, even for general theory and methodology to which it professedly belongs this essay has little or no value.

G.E.V.

Social Psychology, An Analytical Reference Syllabus. By George Elliott Howard, Ph.D., Head Professor of Political Science and Sociology in the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb., 1910. Pp. 88. This admirable guide falls into twenty sections distributed under three chapters. The first, "Characteristics of Social Psychology," is a historical survey which follows in general Davis' Psychological Interpretations of Society; the second on "Suggestibility and Imi- tation," and all but the last section of the third, "Opposition or Counter Imitation," are based directly on Ross's Social Psychology. The final section, "The Role of Great Men," falls into "The 'Great Man' Interpretation of History" and "Potential Genius and Democ- racy." The chief references here are to James, Baldwin, Carlyle, Galton, Fiske, Pearson, Ward, Thomas. The select bibliography of more than six hundred titles includes practically all the important books and articles in this field. One misses Gumplowicz' Der Rassenkampf which is valuable for the psychology of group rivalry, and Tarde's L'opinion et la foule, in which the evolution and role of conversation are so suggestively treated. Williams' study An American Town is too little known. It deserves a place in any course which aims to cover social selection, the creation of types, and the influence of these in social control.

The analysis of topics, the arrangement of references, and the suggestive questions raised here and there are capitally designed for