SOCIAL PROBLEMS
by Francis E. Merrill'26 and others. Alfred A. Knopf, 1950, 425pp. $4.00.
It comes as no surprise, and is, in fact, particularly appropriate, that Francis Merrill has written a book called Social Problems. For his previous works in sociology have all dealt with this field, and within the sociological profession he has long been known familiarly as "Social Problems" Merrill.
The new book discusses four major contemporary problems, each in three rather long chapters. Professor Merrill is the editor and contributes an introduction and the section on the family. H. Warren Dunham, of Wayne University, writes on personality problems from the sociological point of view; Paul Tappan, who is a lawyer as well as a sociologist, examines the problem of juvenile delinquency; and Arnold Rose, associate author with Gunnar Myrdal of An AmericanDilemma, analyzes the status of ethnic, religious and racial minorities.
Social Problems has many features which distinguish it. Because it discusses only a few problems, each one at length, and each one at the hands of a specialist, it avoids the common pitfalls of superficiality and inaccuracy that characterize similar books which cover fifteen to twenty topics only briefly and force the author to pose as an expert on all of them. Social Problems is the first book to include a concise review of the recent literature showing the role of the social environment in the incidence of mental disease. It is also the only book which presents an examination of the problem of juvenile delinquency from a legal and a socio-psychological point of view simultaneously. Finally, Social Problems is noteworthy because all of its chapters reflect the current trend toward the integration of the social sciences; each contributor utilizes the principles of dynamic psychology in the investigation of his subject; and Dunham and Professor Merrill demonstrate considerable knowledge of the more important discoveries of cultural anthropology.
Social Problems is intended for use primarily as a textbook in college courses on social problems. Because of its unique features, however, it will also serve the layman as an excellent introduction to what is going on in all fields of sociology. Professor Merrill is to be congratulated for having guided it into print.
