The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 481
512 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
ignated social process: the scientific and economic development
for which the nineteenth century will always be notable, the
onset of the First World War and its effects, the Russian Revo-
lution and its repercussions, the challenge of Fascism, and the
like. Such processes do, of course, overlap. But they likewise do
have the unity of essential meaning.
Not all readers will agree with all of Professor Riker's inter-
pretations. As a student of economics and an "institutionalist,"
I feel that the scientific-industrial revolution is even more im-
portant than he has made it. I suspect, too, that certain defects
of economic organization which we are only just now beginning
to understand run far back in our history and provide a thread
of continuity that may connect the early modern struggle for
empires with our recently discovered economic instability, with
the rise of Fascism, and with both world wars. Clearer insight
into such troubles also makes the Russian Revolution more in-
telligible. The future may even bring a new world order of which
neither communism as manifest in the Soviet Union nor capi-
talism as the western world has known it hitherto is a clear
augury; and in that event the period just past may appear tran-
sitional rather than one of "the making-and unmaking-of mod-
ern Europe," as it is called on the jacket of this book.
But Professor Riker is a historian, not a prophet, and quite
properly so. His concern is with what has gone into the making
of the institutional patterns of present-day Europe. He has done
a masterly job of unravelling the tangled skein of modern his-
tory. Students who use his book may count themselves fortunate,
and thoughtful readers of all ages will find it profitable, and
palatable, fare.
C. E. AYRES
The University of Texas
Man and His Works: The Science of Cultural Anthropology. By
Melville J. Herskovits. New York (Alfred A. Knopf), 1948.
Pp. 678. Text, $5.00; trade, $6.75-
Herskovits wrote this book for college students in formal an-
thropological courses and also for individuals with a general in-
terest in anthropology. The author, early in the book, states a481
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949, periodical, 1949; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101121/m1/490/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.