Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/289

 REVIEWS 277

The topics treated are : the evolutionary function and usefulness of crime and punishment ; social punishment among animals ; crime among savages; savage races in Australia, America, Asia, and Africa ; the European Aryans; the Anglo-Saxons in England ; England under Normans and Plantagenets ; parliamentary government and the new feudalism ; Tudor England ; England under the Stuarts ; modern England ; increase of crime in the nineteenth century ; the efficacy of punishment ; the trend in modern times ; an ethical theory of crime.

The interpretation of the familiar fact that serious crime is diminish- ing while milder forms of offenses are increasing in progressive coun- tries is itself not altogether novel ; but, in the massing of historical and statistical evidence and the critical sifting of the material, the author has rendered a valuable service to students of the subject.

He accounts for the enormous increase in the number of less grave offenses by the increase of social regulations required by the more complex structure and activities of modern industrial and urban life, and by the inability of many persons to adjust themselves to these new conditions and to the more exacting requirements of a rapidly advan- cing society. He believes there is reason in the statistics for the hope that society will finally succeed in reducing the truly antisocial ele- ments to a minimum and in educating the majority of the capable and sound members of society to intelligent and voluntary acceptance of the law of general welfare. The discussion of this argument is so strong and competent that it places the book distinctly in the class of works to which students of criminology must give attention.

CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON.

Annales de rinstitut international de Sociologie. Publiees sous la

redaction de RENE WORMS, Secretaire general. Tome

VIII: Travaux des annees 1900 et 1901. Paris : Giard et Briere. Pp. 330.

L'AnnJe sociologique. Publiee sous la direction d'^MiLE DURK- HEIM. Cinquieme annee, 1900-1901. Paris : Alcan. Pp.634.

IN former years we have referred to these journals together, and it is a natural association. The subject treated in this number of the Annales is " Le materialisme historique." The contributors are Messrs. Casimir de Kelles-Krantz, J. Novicow, A. Loria, Maxime Kovalewsky, R. de la Grasserie, Ad. Coste, N. Abrikossof, F. Toennies, G. de Greef,