more light on the family

More Light on the FamilyThe Mothers: A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions. by Robert Briffault;The Family in the Making: An Historic Sketch. by Mary Burt Messer; Motherhood and ItsEnemies. by Charlotte Haldane; The Hebrew Family: A Study in Historical Sociology. by EarleBennett Cross; Historic Origin and Social Development of Family Life in Russia. by ElaineElnett; Problems of the Family. by Willystine Goodsell; Birth Contro ...Review by: Ernest R. GrovesSocial Forces, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Sep., 1928), pp. 156-159Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3004563 .

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156 SOCIAL FORCES

philosopher, which quite as often means a lover of words and of verbal distinctions as it does of wisdom, he sometimes leads us through a maze. But this volume is also filled with much wisdom, if with little that is new. Dewey, who so long taught others, is now beginning to learn from others and sometimes he does it so neatly as to be unconscious of the fact. He finds that the public, originally a con- certed defense against visible tyranny, is now disintegrating under the complex (and derivative) pressures of modern life and is dominated by propaganda instead of by sound judgment. The only hope he has of remedying this situation is to find a means of teaching the masses enough scientific fact (as contrasted with mere opinion) that they can criticize propaganda and judge men and programs for them- selves. By such means they may be able to make representative democracy a fact instead of a fallacy. But he does not know whether this can be done. Neither do the rest of us, the more is the pity.

Cultural Evolation, by Professor Ellwood,

attempts to explain how the modern greater community came to be. Professor Ellwood also has learned much in recent years and perhaps equally unconsciously. The most remarkable transformation wrought in him is that he has become an environmentalist instead of an in- stinctivist, although he still preserves a few instincts in his vocabulary for small change. But his heart and soul are fixed upon the psycho-social environment, which, like other reformed instinctivists, he calls "culture." His thesis is that cultural evolution is a learning process by which the individual invents new adjust- ment techniques and these are stored in abstract language symbols and trans- mitted to others, especially to future generations. Thus culture (the psycho- social environment) grows ever larger and richer and organizes itself in institutions. Although this viewpoint and the content are not new, Ellwood's extensive treatment of the theme constitutes a valuable contribution to the present day rapid elaboration of the environmental aspect of sociological theory.

MORE LIGHT ON THE FAMILY

ERNEST R. GROVES

THE MOTHERS: A STUDY OF THE ORIGINS OF SENTIMENTS

AND INSTITUTIONS. By Robert Briffault. New York: Macmillan, I927. 3 VOl. $28.oo.

THE FAMILY IN THE MAKING: AN HISTORIC SKETCH.

By Mary Burt M$sser. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons, i928. 359 PP.

MOTHERHOOD AND ITs ENEMIES. By Charlotte Haldane. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., i928. 253 PP. $2.00.

THE HEBREW FAMILY: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL

SOCIOLOGY. By Earle Bennett Cross. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, I927. 2I7 PP. $2.50.

HISTORIC ORIGIN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Or

FAMILY LIFE IN RUSSIA. By Elaine Elnett. New York: Columbia University Press, I926. i5I pp. $2.50.

PROBLEMS OF THE FAMILY. By Willystine Goodsell. New York: The Century Co., I928. 474 pp.

BIRTH CONTROL AND EUGENICS: IN THE LIGHT OF

FUNDAMENTAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLES. By Charles

P. Bruehl. New York: Joseph F. Wagner. 249

pp. $X.50. PARENTS ON PROBATION. By Miriam Van Waters.

New York: New Republic, Inc., I927. 333 pp. $I.00.

MODERN YOUTH AND MARRIAGE. By Henry Neu-

mann. New York: D. Appleton & Co., I928. I48 pp.

THE RIGHT To BE HAPPY. By Mrs. Bertrand Russell. New York: Harper & Brothers, I927. 295 pp.

In sheer bulk Briffault's volumes are im- pressive. The immense field he covers and



LIBRARY AND WORKSHOP

the completeness with which it is worked appears when we discover that the bibliography takes up nearly zoo pages and the index more than ioo. Lord Macaulay, who chose, for literary diver- sion on his sailing trip to India, Clarissa Harlove as likely to outlast the voyage would have found in these three volumes more reading material than in that meandering and sentimental novel of the eighteenth century. In our time when the competition for the use of leisure is so sharp, such a sizable discussion becomes for nlany repellant. Briffault's book will be used chiefly by many readers as an en- cyclopaedic source for the study of special topics-not, however, because it is lacking in interest, or does not return good profit to those who are willing and free to invest the time for a cover-to-cover reading.

In richness of anthropological material Westermarck's History of Human Marriage is in English Briffault's only rival, and the recent discussion is more objective, closer to modern interests in its method of developing the subject, and to one reader at least of higher literary quality. It is natural to associate the two authors, not merely because they both cover the same ground in their monumental treatment, but also because Briffault antagonizes many of the fundamental statements of his predecessor. For example, with no light touch he disposes of the idea that the gorilla is monogamous, a statement upon which he says Westermarck constructed his theory of human marriage (Vol. I, p. 175). The most important point of differ- ence, perhaps, appears in Briffault's chal- lenge of Westermarck's statement concerning monogamous-savage tribes (Vol. II, pp. Z76-306).

Briffault's book grew out of his interest in social psychology. In the effort to draw up a list of the forms of social instincts and to discover their origin, the

author was led to the belief that they come from instincts related to the function of the female and not the male. Believing that this could not happen under the conditions of an early patriarchal society, he was driven to the conclusion that the early development of human society and its fundamental institutions and tradi- tions are understandable only as we assume the matriarchal theory of social evolution. It is this basic idea that the sociologist will find most significant in this discussion of primitive life. It is the anthropologist who must pass final judgment upon the evidences that Briffault presents for the establishment of his theory. To the sociologist these books will be most valuable for the material they bring together concerning the family ex- periences of savage society. Certainly no student of the family can afford not to have Briffault's Mothers in his library.

The Family in the Making is a historical study of the development of the family, which has resulted from the research the author has been carrying on at the University of Wisconsin. The writer traces the family from its origin through its major historic expression until in the final chapter, "The American Frontier," she bids us look into the future. This book, curiously, also stresses in accord with Briffault, in its first chapter on "The Natural Family," the dominance of woman as possibly "the creative genius of society itself." The discussion goes forward with vigor and portrays the changing family with a skill that makes the subject-matter intensely interesting. It is a book of substance and one that starts thought.

Motherhood and Its Enemies gives a historic survey of the family in the first part of the book. The second part consists of a discussion of modern problems, including birth control and subsidized motherhood.



I58 SOCIAL FORCES

The author does not conceal the fact that she has opinions and is writing the book with the hope of convincing her reader that socieiy must take more seriously the values of motherhood or continue to suffer evils that are born of a neglectful policy. Scattered through the book are discus- sions that force thought. For example, in her plea for easier delivery in childbirth the reader's attention takes a sharp turn when he reads "the tendency to Sadism in spinster maternity nurses is again and again responsible for unnecessary pain suffered by their patients during labor. In addition their timidity and ignorance cause further misery when they are com- pelled to administer drugs" (p. 248). Or again "the age of the child is approach- ing. The worship of the Madonna and of the infant Jesus will cease. It will be replaced by a recognition of the mother's primary importance in the social hier- archy, and of the child's importance to the individual parent and of his condi- tional value to the community" (p. z52). If you wish by turning aside from familiar paths to fellowship with new thought concerning family interests, read this book.

The cohesion and high level of fellowship maintained by the Jewish family under the most adverse cirumstances even until now makes the early history of the Hebrew family of the greatest importance to those interested in the study of the home. Cross in The Hebrew Fagmily has handled in brief space the difficult task of interpreting the evolution of the Hebrew family in the light of present-day knowledge of the Old Testament. Throughout the book he applies the results of higher criticism in such a way as to give the stages of family development their appro- priate setting. The author avoids the temptation to stray into the attractive by-paths brought forward by his discus-

sion, with the result that he gives us in concrete form the clearest and most revealing picture of the history of the Hebrew family yet written.

Elaine Elnett presents in even briefer space the origin and development of family life in Russia. The Russian type of family life is little known by most Americans, and as Professor Giddings sug- gests in his preface to the book, only a small group of students are qualified to pass judgment on the technical scholarship of this particular discussion. The book is replete with information on the Russian family. It is obvious that in so brief a treatment only the general trend of family experience among the people that stretch over such an enormous terri- tory as Russia can be given. All students in folkways among savage and peasant people will welcome Chapter III on the proverbs which are collected because of the light they throw upon family experience and relationship.

Dr. Goodsell's book fulfills the high expectation of those who, familiar with her former work, knew that she was writing an interpretation of the problems of contemporary American family life. The book is divided into four parts. The first traces the history of the family from its origin to its present expression in England and America. Part II takes up the social conditions that are at present acting upon the family. Here especial attention is given to modern industrialism and the pathology of family life. In Part III- Individualism and The Family" -the chapters are concerned with the problems of birth control, giving us, perhaps, the best-balanced discussion of this difficult problem to be found in family literature. The last chapter in this division discusses freedom in love. Here we find a critical analysis of the attack which has developed during the last



LIBRARY AND WORKSHOP

quarter of the century upon the conven- tional form and tradition of the American family. In Part IV we are turned toward the future in chapters that consider the promise of the childhood and family experience near at hand.

Bruehl's book gives us an authoritative statement of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church with reference to birth control and eugenics. The author not only states the position of the church, but interprets it in the background of recent science with emphasis upon the moral principles involved in any honest discussion of birth control. The book proceeds quietly without emotion and with avoidance of an appeal to prejudice or passion. It is a book which has been much needed, and bears evidence of the necessity of keeping birth control controversy on the high level of moral principles and intellectual appeal.

In Parents on Probation Miriam Van Waters again reveals her rare genius in both ulnderstanding and portraying human nature in action. It is an indispensable book to those interested either in the child or the parent. Written with the charm of good fiction, it gives the reader solid facts of the utmost importance in the appreciation of contemporary parent- child relationships.

Neumann's book has issued from the recent discussion of the Lindseyan proposi- sition of divorce by mutual consent. It deals with the moral values at stake in the crusade for a freer and more individualistic convention in matrimonial experience. It is a plea for standards and for caution as

we move into the rapid transition of present-day marriage. In spite of the author's evident eagerness to be helpful, most parents and young people after finishing the book will be left with the feeling that his position is vaguely stated and his solution even more obscure. There is not the sharp and pointed tackling of issues that in such a controversy we have the right to expect.

It is quite otherwise with Mrs. Bertrand Russell's The Right to Be Happy. No reader can follow her thought without clearly understanding what she regards as obstacles to matrimonial happiness, and without feeling the suggestion which issues from the implications of her position. She believes that man is not happy, but easily could be, if he were willing to make use of the resources that belong to him as a member of the modern world. She considers the rights of human beings with reference to food, work, knowledge, sex, and parenthood, and as children. Her insistence that greater happiness must be achieved by a franker recognition of sex needs and her belief that here we need to direct our attention to individual rights rather than to social restraint draws the attention of the reader to the most spec- tacular feature of the book and its obvious motive. In speculation it is easy enough to interpret sex as merely the individual's concern, but this practice, when trans- lated into human flesh and blood relationships, proves stubbornly social. Happi- ness can never be made a right. It is an achievement. He who grasps for it, pro- claiming his rights, makes a bad start.



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