Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/601

 REVIEWS 583

An Examination of Society from the Standpoint of Evolution. By Louis WALLIS. Columbus, O.: The Argus Press. Pp. 325.

POPULAR education has produced a multitude of amateurs who have just enough rhetorical knack, commonplace information, and conceit of wisdom to afflict reviewers and the public with a flood of superfluous books. This evil is acute in the field of social science. It should not be surprising, therefore, that workers in this field are skeptical about the merits of a new publication, unless its author has an assured aca- demic position or previous scientific standing. The assumption is that it is merely another weariness to the spirit of specialists, always overtaxed in keeping up with the work of their colleagues who have something to say.

Mr. Wallis has almost estopped me from expressing my judgment of his book by giving me excessive credit in connection with it. At the risk of seeming to offer a quid pro quo, I record my opinion, how- ever, that the book cannot fairly be ignored by sociologists. It deserves to be read, and read respectfully. It is very far from being a mere rendering of common knowledge. It is virtually a thesis, which may be stated quite briefly, with support from a long historical argu- ment. The thesis itself is less novel than the author thinks, and it does not go so far toward the end of the sociological problem as he sup- poses. At the same time it carries an element of original emphasis which is not altogether misplaced, and there are few philosophical mono- graphs in our day of which more than this is true. Mr. Wallis shows both analytic and synthetic ability that entitle him to a thought- ful hearing. He has fairly earned recognition as a sociological thinker.

In a word, the argument of the book is this:

1. A considerable fact in all civilizations is social "cleavage" into two principal classes, upper and lower (p. 47).

2. A second principal fact is that "the integration of society rests upon concomitant integration of capital," both material and intan- gible ( p. 51).

3. Social cleavage is one of the principal factors in the capitaliza- tion of social development (p. 51 ); *'. e. :

Cleavage actively enlisted the egoism of the upper class in the tremen- dous work of social development. A large part of the appropriated labor of the masses was converted into the material and spiritual tools whereby humanity conquers its environment and struggles upward along the path of progress By promoting the growth of capital, the upper class uncon-