SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION

by Francis E.Merrill '26, Mabel A. Elliott, Harpers 1941XV -f- 1087 pp. $3.75.

THIS STANDARD WORK on "Social Disorganization" of which Francis E. Merrill, 1926, is joint author, was first published in 1934. It was described by reviewers as a well-written and exceptionally competent treatise in its particular field and was hailed by the London Times in its Literary Supplement as worthy of being commended no less "for the acuteness and insight of its comments than for its extensive collection of facts and statistics. The authors' discussion, for instance, of the 'new morality' is a model of sane judgment."

In this second edition issued seven years later, the authors have not only brought up to date their statistical and other data but have rewritten a large portion of the book adding over two hundred and fifty pages of new and valuable material. In its present form it should prove even more useful for textbook and general reading.

The contents fall rather naturally into five parts. The first deals with the general ideas of social organization and disorganization: the second goes very fully (eighteen chapters) into Individual Disorganization, including delinquency in general, sex offenses, drink, unemployment, mental deficiency, etc. The third part takes up Family Disorganization; the fourth, Community Disorganization and the fifth consists of two timely chapters on World Disorganization.

It is not of course a study of the most cheerful aspects of life—in this respect it ranks with any other pathology—but it is realistic in answering the needs of a time when, unfortunately, disorganization on all scales obtrudes itself upon the view. To those who are accustomed to think that human society will somehow run itself, if we can only obtain grace to refrain from "interference," the book should be particularly enlightening. It is written in an open-minded, tolerant vein with no axes to grind, no panaceas to peddle.