Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/856

 842 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The American People: A Study in National Psychology. By A. Maurice Low, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. Pp. 446. $2.25 net.

To dissent from the publishers' assertion that this book is "a masterly study in national psychology and a notable contribution to history" is not to deny that the work has interest, charm of style, and value for the general reader. To the social psychologist the volume cannot fail to be a disappointment. The author's idea of the function of the psychologist of history is "from the summit of the present to look back with clear vision on the past, and with the advantage of unobscured view, free from the distraction of being an actor in the scene of life, behold the causes that produced results, observe the play of daedalian forces which once released gain from within themselves new impulses and form fresh centers of energy, and with the past and present as a guide develop the future" (p. 8). Measured by this ambitious program, the results of Mr. Low's study are meager and by no means novel. Only the beginnings — the colonial period — of the national life are considered. "In the history of early struggles is found the cradle" (p. 67). That a new society with its own customs, standards, and institutions has grown up in the United States, that the natural environment has profoundly influenced the people as a whole and helped to differentiate provin- cial types, that the Puritan has played a most important part in the national life, that he was by nature a rebel, that he has been much misunderstood and maligned, that the South is to be interpreted largely in terms of cotton and rice, that democracy was a natural outgrowth of pioneer conditions, are theses that few students of the social sciences would think of challenging.

The author uses the word "race" as though it were synonymous with nation (p. 6). Although he says, "Climate, environment, social conditions, and a system of political philosophy far-reaching in its moral influence have produced not a mongrel race but mentally and physically a new race" (p. 20), in his discussion he lays little stress upon biological changes. These he attributes to intermixture of races rather than to modifications due to physical environment. The use of the word "race" is unfortunate because that term has a certain technical meaning which produces a confusion of ideas. It suggests the startling discovery, periodically exploited in the press, that Americans are being molded by physical conditions to an ab- original Indian type. As a matter of fact Mr. Low is concerned