Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/716

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

702 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

bibliography. The name of Tench Coxe is repeatedly misspelled in text, and in index, but does not appear in the bibliography. The bibliography itself is neither complete nor selected, nor is it either classified or annotated. Periodicals are referred to by the num- ber of the volume, but this gives no inkling of the year of publi- cation — a point of special importance in economic history. The titles of books also appear without date of publication and without statement of the extent of the work. London and Boston are constantly abbreviated, although other names of places are not. Barmaids appears as the name of an author rather than as the subject of a report. The date given after the volume of the col- lections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (pp. 377. 378), does not refer to the date of publication of the volume, but to the original date of the article included in the volume.

This may seem hypercritical, but the chain is as strong as its weakest link and carelessness in the description of the tools used in an important investigation raises a question as to the unimpeach- able value of the work done with them. Fortunately in this case the merits of the investigation are not invalidated by the careless- ness with which the bibliography has been prepared, but Miss Abbott has unconsciously been skating over thin ice. May the second edition of this important contribution to economic history speedily come, and with it the removal of the few flaws in its construction that now must militate against it.

Lucy M. Salmon

POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.

The Junior Republic, Its History and Ideals. By William R. George. D. Appleton & Co., 1910. Pp. 326. It is fortunate that the founder of the George Junior Republic has given in a biographical form and in chronological order the story of his interesting experiment ; one can follow the very mental processes by which, in contrast with a troublesome mob of street boys and girls, the genial man discovered and put to the test certain principles of education. The experiment is too brief for final conclusions, and we must have trials under other conditions before we can know how much is due to a singular personality, and how much is doubtful in the more remote results; but there