CAN ENGINEERS SAVE US? TOWARD CIVILIZATION

Edited by Charles A. Beard. (New York, Longmans, Green, 1930.)

This volume is a sequel to Whither Mankind, and represents an attempt to describe the prospects of solution of some of the problems raised therein. Dr. Beard has relied chiefly on engineers to point the way toward civilization, since it is his chiefest theme that our civilization is suffering mainly from the maladjustments between rural social institutions and ideas on the one hand and our scientific, industrialized, mechanized economy on the other. The engineers attempt to get us out of the mess into which they have got us, and the results are interesting, though one could hardly say epochal or revolutionary. A courageous belief that engineering can conquer the evils of its own making as well as those which it was originally devised to conquer runs through the whole book. The fact that the collaborators include Millikan, de Forest, and Pupin should serve to recommend the book to the general public.

Princeton University.