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Movement and Revolution. by Peter L. Berger; Richard John Neuhaus Review by: Perry H. Howard Social Forces, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Dec., 1970), pp. 340-341 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2576569 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 21:45 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 21:45:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Movement and Revolution.by Peter L. Berger; Richard John Neuhaus

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Movement and Revolution. by Peter L. Berger; Richard John NeuhausReview by: Perry H. HowardSocial Forces, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Dec., 1970), pp. 340-341Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2576569 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 21:45

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 21:45:09 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

340 SOCIAL FORCES

of the early English ecologists is not included, though Sanders refers to Mayhew's London Labour and London Poor in one of his editorial com- ments.

The book is divided into two parts of unequal length. Comprising two-thirds of the anthology, Part One offers 88 extracts from publications and documents from England, Scotland, and Aus- tralia dating from 688 to 1898. English sources predominate. In the second part 36 selections from materials produced in the American colonies and the United States between 1641 and 1900 are presented. The editor chose to exclude material published since 1900 because it is usually accessible and generally known. Within each part the selections are arranged in chronological order. This gives a historical perspective on changes in writers' views of neglected and delinquent youth, the development of the law pertaining to juveniles, and institutional handling of juvenile offenders.

This anthology is designed to dispel the notion that delinquency is a twentieth century problem which initially received public recognition with the passage of the first Juvenile Court Act in Illinois in 1899. Sanders correctly rejects the assumption that before the beginning of this century youthful lawbreakers were tried and punished in exactly the same way as adult of- fenders. Although some of the excerpts suggest that severe punishment-execution, use of stocks, whipping, hard labor, and extensive periods of confinement in dismal institutions-was com- monly inflicted on juveniles, the central theme of the anthology is that "as far back as written records go children who have broken the law have been treated on the whole more leniently than have adult offenders" (p. xviii).

Emphasized in the selections are the formal handling of juveniles and the historical develop- ment of the law pertaining to juvenile delinquents, rather than explanations of delinquency. Scat- tered throughout the extracts, however, are ref- erences to the deleterious effects of obscenity, intemperance, parents' improper conduct and in- adequate supervision, lack of education and em- ployment, "Fagins," and abuses in the system of justice. There are accounts of the confinement of children in workhouses, jails, and prisons; the apprenticeship of vagrant and delinquent boys to sea captains; transportation of juveniles to Aus- tralia; the development of reformatories and in- dustrial schools; efforts to introduce probation; early houses of refuge in this country; and the early days of the Chicago Juvenile Court. The description of the legal status of juvenile offenders in the seventeenth century and Blackstone's com- ment on the criminal responsibility of children under the common law are noteworthy.

Although a brief review cannot do justice to this compilation, one passage deserves comment. In 1880 it was noted that criminals have more protection in court than do juveniles and the question of notice to parents was raised. Readers

will find other instances where contemporary issues were discussed years ago.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND COLLECTIVE

BEHAVIOR

MOVEMENT AND REVOLUTION. By Peter L. Berger and Richard John Neuhaus. New York: Double- day, 1970. 240 pp. $1.45.

Reviewed by PERRY H. HOWARD, Louisiana State University

This is an important book. It contains justifi- cations for radical action by a sociologist and a Lutheran pastor, both committed to the con- temporary "movement." They agree on the neces- sity for social change in America and disdain agitation for change without concern for humanity and justice. Berger concludes that avenues for reform are still open while Neuhaus is more im- patient for revolution-but only a just one.

Berger's sociological perspective includes funda- mental hesitation to change social institutions which, typically, result from accidental rather than deliberate design. The youth movement feeds upon a youth culture shared by a generation of more humane persons created by the demographic and emotional calculus of advanced industrial societies. A smaller radical movement draws recruits from the young and Berger finds it practices a selective humanity and is disturbingly similar in certain respects to European fascism.

Berger is morally outraged by the Vietnam war. But the touchstone of personal integrity he sees in the way one responds to the Negro. He sees the rebel acting out a pseudo revolutionary drama on campus as a threat to the university ideal of disinterested scholarship. Humanistic conserva- tism justifies revolution, however, in situations where human suffering from the status quo is so great it appears just to accept the price in suffering that will have to be paid in overthrowing it. This is in refreshing contrast to "new sociologists" whose proclaimed "relevancies" hide what this reviewer suspects is neo Saint-Simonian authori- tarianism.

Pastor Neuhaus believes that whether or not the U.S. needs a revolution, this country desper- ately needs to confront the issue raised by revolu- tionary thought. The intention to bring about radical change rooted in the civil rights move- ment is shared by the young who came to political consciousness during the Vietnam debate and who assert that the war is what America is all about. Neuhaus identifies with those who come to revolu- tion reluctantly, finding no other choice, and dis- dains would-be revolutionists who come with no other thought-who just feel radical.

The authors develop the following criteria of a just revolution. It is: declared by legitimate authority; in response to real injury suffered; undertaken only after all reasonable means of

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BOOK REVIEWS 341

peaceful settlement have been exhausted; one in which those prosecuting it have good intentions; in which damage likely to be incurred is not dispro- portional to injury suffered; which employs only legitimate and moral means; with a reasonable hope for success.

The reader will not agree with all that is said here. Indeed, evidence for the sorry state of American institutional patterns is often simply stated rather than carefully spelled out by Neu- haus. But the whole purpose of the book is to get conservatives, radicals, and even liberals meaning- fully talking with each other. Those concerned with conditions of American society will find this book indispensable.

CULTURAL CHANGE

AMERICAN SOCIETY IN TRANSITION. By Chester A. Davis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970. 285 pp. $5.50.

Reviewed by PANOS D. BARDIS, University of Toledo

In the greatest scientific treatise of all time, Newton's Principia Mathematica, we find the real- ization of Bacon's dream of extending terrestrial physical laws to the entire universe, which Kepler failed to accomplish through the analogy of mag- netism. This synthetic work would have been im- possible without previous scientific achievements --Galileo's discoveries, Kepler's laws, Cavalieri's "indivisibles," etc.-which made Newton exclaim: "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Yet, no matter what the extent and value of such syntheses are, carping critics, and apologetic authors such as Professor Davis, too frequently hasten to lament: "this book is not original, but one of synthesis" (pp. vii). Careful scrutiny of the concepts of orig- inality and synthesis usually renders such lamen- tations unwise.

Besides, Dr. Davis has produced a truly im- pressive volume on the changing American society. His nontheoretical discussion of the nature of social change and its consequences is brilliant. His interdisciplinary and sociohistorical emphasis is valuable. And his analysis of five important social institutions-economy, education, family, government, and religion-is masterful. Intelli- gent general readers, as well as college students and instructors of courses in social studies and American society, will appreciate his conscien- tious efforts.

Also admirable is his tendency to present the facts and let the reader draw his own conclusions. Only occasionally does such objectivity vanish. For instance, his vehement attack on romantic love (pp. 185-186) is unjustified, since this emo- tion has been partly generated by social forces which have been creative in ways that Professor Davis obviously approves. But his comment that

physical attraction has become "highly valued" is sound. Indeed, my "Erotometer," a Likert scale for the more objective measurement of hetero- sexual love, reveals that sexual desire does not quite differentiate "loving" from not "loving" respondents!

"Theories of Social Change" (p. 17) is too brief, inadequate, and misleading. And the sec- tion on "Cybernetics and Automation" (pp. 125- 129) would have been more fascinating and effective if Dr. Davis had dealt with the relevant subject of "futurism" in detail (cf. Armytage, Ayres, Beckwith, Boulding, Brown, Chase, Kahn, Muller, Walla, etc.). After all, "futurism" no longer consists of astrological, apocalyptic, and utopian dreams, or of the oracular utterances of the Hebrew prophet and the Delphic Pythia!

LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPING NATIONS. Edited by Joshua A. Fishman, Charles A. Ferguson, and Jyotirindra das Gupta. New York; Wiley, 1968. 521 pp. $12.95.

Reviewed by MARY SANCHES, University of Texas at Austin

If one were to approach this book with the ex- pectation that he were going to be informed about a set of theoretical linguistic problems derived from the variety of language situations of the newly emergent polities of the world, he would be disappointed. The book might better have been titled: Political Problems Involving Language Use in Developing Nations, a title which, although unwieldy, reflects the contents of the book far better than does the present one. While the editors (who are also responsible for eight of the papers) state that the purpose of the volume is to:

. . .provide ample examples of the diverse societal and national functions of language varieties, examples of the changes in these functions as the roles and statuses of their speakers change, and examples of the changes in the language varieties per se that accompany their changed uses and users (p. x).

the problem of overwhelming importance to most of the writers of the thirty-three papers here is language standardization. Fully twenty-seven of the papers consider it as a main topic. Most of the rest are concerned with literacy. A representa- tive point of view about language standardization which seems to underlie the authors' feelings is expressed by Jernudd as follows: ". . . a lan- guage choice is essential in any planned develop- ment if the government activities and future U.N. campaigns are to be efficient in the area studied" (p. 167). Ferguson pursues the issue further:

What language shall be chosen as the prin- cipal means of communication in the process of change? . . . It may be hoped that modern workers in applied linguistics will develop a

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