STUDIES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY.

Edited by Prof. Derek L. Phillips (Sociology). New York: Thomas Y. CrowellCo., 1965. 262 pp. $2.25.

Professor Phillips' modest intention is to introduce students of social science to five significant recent studies of American society. Mission accomplished. Any parent and thoughtful citizen will also find this short book useful and stimulating. Representative portions of major research studies are presented in the subject areas of Religion and Family Life, Television and Children, The Adolescent Society, Colleges Under Pressure (of McCarthyism), and Mental Illness of the City. Each section is preceded by Professor Phillips' commentary on its methodological strengths and shortcomings.

The first study seeks answers to the broad question: "Of what importance is one's religion in shaping one's attitudes and behavior in today's highly urbanized life?" The second study on the impact of television on children demonstrates rather clearly the extent to which TV is a major influence in a child's experience. It reaches some interesting conclusions about the relationship of this pervasive communications medium to reading habits, fantasy release, and future aspirations.

The culture of the adolescent world is viewed in the next section. The reader comes to understand more clearly why adolescents speak a language quite different worth noting: putting boys and girls together in school is not necessarily the healthy, normal thing to do. "It does not necessarily promote adjustment to life." (p. 149)

McCarthyism and its devastating effects on the teaching of social science in college is taken up in the section on The Academic Mind. The final section deals with the incidence of mental health in the city. That almost one fourth of the sample population in the study was found to be mentally impaired should not make the non-city resident complacent. As Professor Phillips' own work in New Hampshire demonstrates, mental illness is one of the most serious domestic problems facing America today.

Professor of Organization andAdministration, Tuck School