A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF PUBLIC OPINION.

By Harwood L. Childs '19. Princeton University Press, 1934. 105 p.

This is an enlargement of the bibliography and outline prepared and used by Professor Childs in his course on Public Opinion at Princeton University. Its author hopes that in this form it "will serve as a coordinating link between our academic program of scientific studies and the needs of those who are actually dealing with the forces of public opinion in this country." Undoubtedly, for the serious reader who is anxious to understand the nature of propaganda and the methods of propagandists to whose influence he is increasingly aware of his constant subjection, the bibliography will fill a great need. The material is organized about some twenty topics such as "What is public opinion," "Economic regimentation of public opinion," and "Official propaganda in peace time." Perhaps the only defect of the book is that acknowledged by Professor Childs, that the book is necessarily incomplete because the very great body of material on the subject of public opinion makes it impossible to classify and arrange it in one volume. Nevertheless it is quite apparent that there has been well accomplished the purpose of opening up "new vistas along which one may travel with the guidance of specialists."