THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

by Hadley Cantril '29, John Wiley& Sons, 1941, p. xiv, 274. $2:75.

EVEN MORE TELLINGLY than in his earlier book, The Invasion from, Mars, Professor Hadley Cantril (Princeton University), in his latest contribution, sheds light upon certain social movements of our time. The motivating forces within the individual are used as the basis for the analysis.

Part I deals with the "basic concepts"; the generalized "frame of reference" that an individual accepts for the "social context" in which he lives, the "self-regard" which he develops through his social values coupled with the level of his achievement; and finally, the "desire for meaning," that is, trying to make sense out of his experiences. In states of bewilderment "the will to believe" is engendered, Hadley Cantril finds, and suggestion may then run high and wide, but not handsome.

Part II is devoted to the application of these concepts to certain social movements; the Lynching Mob, the Kingdom of Father Divine, the Oxford Group, the Townsend Plan, the Nazi Party. The last receives special emphasis. The success of such movements is typically analyzed into a promise of escape from the individual's material hardships, an appeal to ego-drives by raising his status, and by providing faith and meaning to his life. The author discusses only those movements which should, he says, "be discouraged"; the discussion of other movements which he regards as "more nearly right" might have afforded interesting comparisons.

The work is sound and well-documented. The emphasis upon the factors which motivate individuals in social situations constitutes a welcome contrast to the vague abstractions which often characterize discussions of social movements. The book contributes specifically to the psychology of propaganda and helps explicitly in clarifying the rise of social movements.

John Henry Bartlett '94, former Governor of New Hampshire, is the author of a book of 196 pages, The Story of Sunapee, a history of the author's native town. This valuable New Hampshire history comes from the press of Byron S. Adams of Washington, D. C., and is apparently privately printed.

Seventy pages of this book are devoted to genealogies of the early settlers of the town. Other chapters are devoted to the history of the town in the various wars and to local material valuable to the historian. We learn that Sunapee was first chartered in 1768 as Saville, the first settlers coming from Portsmouth in 1769. Later in 1781 the name of the town was changed to Wendell. Not until 1850 did Sunapee, an old Indian name, become the town's official name. The book has many illustrations. From one of these we learn that the first auto mobile to be used in the United States was invented in 1869 in Sunapee by Enos Merrill Clough. His first trip was from Sunapee to Newport. The inventor went as far as St. Johnsbury at one time but did not receive much renown for his invention. Because his car frightened the horses he was ordered by the town officials not to run it on the public roads!

New Hampshire historians are indebted to Mr. Bartlett for this book essential to any New Hampshire shelf.