REVIEWS.
Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order. By EDWARD ALSWORTH Ross, Pn.D. ("The Citizen's Library of Eco- nomics, Politics and Sociology.") New York: The Mac- millan Co. Pp. xii + 463. $1.25.
WHEN this book appeared it was announced in this JOURNAL (Vol. VII, No. 2, p. 288), and a more extended notice was planned to follow at once. Through a series of accidents the prospect has been repeatedly disappointed. For many books such delay would be fatal. Three years from publication would suffice to put them out of the running. The contrary is true in the present instance. This is not an ephemeral vol- ume. It is not a piece of speculation, liable to be rendered obsolete by changes in fashions of thought. Its terminology may some time become archaic; others may carry the analysis into minuter details. No one can deprive the book of its permanent merit as a vivid transcript of a certain phase of the reality presented by every relatively advanced stage of the social process. Dr. Ross has not exploited a theory of what might, could, would, or should be among men. He has calmly and carefully described one of the systems of activities that are con- stantly in operation among culture peoples. A treatise on the judicial system of the United States could not deal with more literal reality, and it would be difficult for the strictest legal mind to handle the material in a more positive temper. "Social control" is a higher generalization than "the judicial system." Under the law of ratio between intension and extension the facts that are primarily pertinent are of course less minutely scrutinized than in a more special investi- gation. Real facts, relations, and actions are set forth, however, in their actual connections with each other, no less severely than in con- stitutions and statutes and ordinances.
Dr. Ross has been literal in another direction. He talks about more than one subject that many people hold ineffable. Moreover, he does not view them from the popular angle nor say the conventional things. He points out just what is going forward in the way of fitting people into the social process. This is as shocking to many sensi- bilities as the chemistry of a tear or the physiology of a heart-throb
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