Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/595

 REVIEWS 577

might be to a debutante ; yet with the nonchalance of the dissecting- room the author points out, not what people think about social insti- tutions, but the different types of pressure that the institutions are exerting to mold individuals to the social will. This spoils a great deal of poetry, and I will not undertake to say who is ripe for such disil- lusions. For the few, at any rate, the analysis is timely, and it is seldom that a more clean-cut piece of work is done on a task of equal magnitude.

Looking at society from one angle, it is possible to describe it as a plexus of struggles between conflicting interests which progressively adjust themselves to elements of common interest that emerge in the course of the struggle. This is Ratzenhofer's point of view. His Wesen und Zweck der Politik elaborates the idea at great length. Con- trary to its author's own estimate, this analytical work constitutes a much more important contribution to sociology than his synthetic work on Die sociologische Erkenntnis. Looked at from another point of view, society is a plexus of contrivances for composing struggling persons into a unity. It is society in this phase that Ross undertook to interpret. His work is on the same level of importance with Ratzenhofer's. I have shaded the view of each somewhat to bring out the contrast between them. The two analyses are in effect companion pieces. They complement each other. Together they carry generaliza- tion of the social process into the most advanced stadium that it has reached, while keeping within the lines of positive method.

Professor Ross locates his inquiry as follows :

Social Psychology .... deals with the psychic interplay between man and his environing society. It falls into two divisions. One of these, Social Ascendency, deals with the domination of society over the individual ; the other, Individual Ascendency embracing such topics as invention, leader- ship, the role of great men deals with the domination of the individual over society. Social Ascendency is further divided into Social Influence mob mind, fashion, convention, custom, public opinion and the like and Social Control. The former is occupied with the social domination which is with- out intention or purpose ; the latter is concerned with that domination which is intended, and which fulfils a function in the life of society. This work, therefore, deals with only one subdivision in the field of Social Psy- chology. In this book I seek to determine how far the order we see all about us is due to influences that reach men and women from without, that is, social influences. (Preface.)

The plan of the book is so unique that it is worth giving in full,