Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/714

 698 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

is cumulative, in spite of the probability that, if we could cross- examine the witnesses, some of them would cancel each other.

The De Tocqueville of the third republic has not appeared. Mr. Bodley has given us a saner view of France as a whole than any native writer has furnished. Meanwhile such books as the one before us serve the purpose of cartoons. They call attention to real conditions, but they would lead us far astray if we permitted ourselves to draw the indicated conclusions. Such books would not be taken very seriously, on their own merits, if they were written in English. Of course, there must be a "Vive la France!" in the concluding chapters, but this rather confirms the impressions, first, that the books were made to sell, and, second, that they " do protest too much." Their total effect is unfavorable upon our estimate of prevailing tendencies in French civilization. A. VV. S.

Economics and Industrial History for Secondary Schools. By Henry W. Thurston, Head of the Department of Social and Eco- nomic Science in the Chicago Normal School. Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1899. Pp. 300.

The teacher who wants to guide beginners in the study of society, who is not content to have them merely absorb the doctrines of one book, who wants to show them how to find out social facts and social relations for themselves, will find in this book an outline of the method by which one teacher has tried all this with success. It does not follow that every teacher could take the book and make an equally successful venture with a class of bright pupils. The teafhers are rare in sec- ondary schools who have specialized sufficiently upon these subjects to be safe in giving their pupils such wide range. The exceptional teachers who know the ground as intimately as it is known to the author of this little book ought to be able to follow the method with constantly increasing satisfaction both to themselves and to their pupils. The author does not intimate that college students might be inducted into the study of economics by use of this guide. In fact, however, much college instruction in this subject shoots over the heads of students, and for a long time fails to rouse the interest that it might and should, from unwillingness on the part of the instructors to start with rudiments simple and concrete enough to fix the attention. It would by no means be beneath the dignity of college