the annals of the american academy of political and social science-1931-becker-194-5

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http://ann.sagepub.com/content/154/1/194.2.citationThe online version of this article can be found at:

DOI: 10.1177/000271623115400184

194 1931 154:The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Howard BeckerUniversity Press, 1930. $2.00

Schmidt, Nathaniel. Ibn Khaldun. Pp. 67. New York: Columbia

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against users, the Populist spasm whichculminated in the epileptic tongue of

Bryan, all these are left as cold and un-

sav ory as y esterdays leg of lamb.And Reed himself emerges as a dynamic

figure only because the author is continuallysaying so. When we compare the futile at-

tempts at leadership in the present Con-

gress with the summary way in which Reed

dominated a much more virile group of

men, then first do we glimpse what a per-sonality he must have been. But we donot come away from Dr. Robinsons book

with any such realization, and this is certain

to prove a fatal defect.ALPHONSE B. MILLER

Philadelphia

SCHAFER, JOSEPH (Ed.). Carl SchurzMilitant Liberal. Pp. xxi, 270. Evans-ville, Wisconsin: TheAntes Press, 1930.

Carl Schurz was a many-sided man. Hewas a scholar and a musician; a general inthe Civil War; a United States Senator andCabinet officer; a friend and opponent of

presidents and politicians; editor and pub-licist, and, next to George William Curtis,the foremost proponent of civil service re-

form ; and, above all, a militant liberal in

public affairs.All of these phases and activities of a

brave and persevering man are clearlybrought out by Dr. Schafer, who writes asdispassionately as a devoted and admiringfriend can. In 870 pages he has given a

good summary of one who became one ofthe most distinguished of the foreign-bornleaders ofAmerica in the nineteenth cen-

tury. While wielding at times great influ-ence among German-born citizens, he nevertraded on this influence. His constant

endeavor was to win their generous and

whole-hearted support of what he believedto be American ideals of government. Pas-

sionately devoted to what he conceived tobe the

geniusofAmerican

libertyand free-

40m, he never wavered in what he thoughtto be his duty, even at the expense of long-time attachments and friendships. Frompersonal acquaintance I know of his per-sonal charm and power, both of which were

potent even when one differed most radi-

cally from him.The author of this most interesting study

is evidently one who not only felt their fulleffect, but was a devoted follower as well, afact which Marie Jiissen Monroe of Mil-

waukee (now the nearest kin to Schurz)frankly admits in her interesting introduc-tion, when she quotes Schurzs own remarkfrom his essay onAbraham Lincoln: &dquo;We

are inclined to idealize that which we lov e-

a state of mind very unfavorable to sober,critical judgment.&dquo;

Schurz was characterized by a &dquo;stubborn

public honesty&dquo; in dealing with great ques-tions of public policy. It won for him

great respect even when one most greatly

differed from him, and itwas

because ofthis quality that he made so substantiala contribution to the growth of independentpolitical thought and action. Not onlywas he at all times a relentless opponent of

the spoils system and a staunch supporterof the merit system, but he could always be

depended upon to put what he believed tobe the cause of good government before thedemands of party.

This book, which of necessity is a sketchyone because it seeks to cover so much

ground in such compact space, is singularlydeficient in its references to Theodore

Roosevelt, who is mentioned only twice andthen by name only.

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF

Philadelphia

SCHMIDT, NATHANIEL. Ibn Khaldun. Pp.67. New York: Columbia University

Press, 1930. $2.00.All the rich experience of the Moslem

travelers and the ripe culture of the Greekscome to a focus in that greatest of four-

teenth-century geographers, historians, andsociologists, the Berber of Tunis, IbnKhaldun. His importance lies, as Barneshas said, in the feat, unique for his time, of

having been able to regard history as anatural process; he was the first successor of

Polybius. AnticipatingVice and

Turgot,he stressed the continuity of historical de-velopment and at the same time the im-portance of &dquo; intrusive factors.&dquo;Ibn Khaldun has been much praised, but

no translation of his great Prolegomena to

History is available in English. Flint paida good deal of attention to him in his His-

tory of the Phil.~sapl~~ of History, and in this

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195

secondary way only has he become knownto the English-speaking world. His directinfluence on sociologists probably datesfrom 1899, when

Gumplowicz publishedthe

Sociologische Essays, for in this book was a

chapter on Ibn Khaldun, &dquo;An ArabianSociologist of the Fourteenth Century.&dquo;Due to the stress laid by Gumplowicz

upon the conflict theory of social develop-ment, however, some of the significantfeatures of the Berbers doctrine were al-

most totally obscured. Even the com-

paratively recent and comprehensive esti-mate by Barnes regards Ibn Khaldun

almost exclusively from the conflict-theorystandpoint; the same is true of that byFranz Oppenheimer, the present-day cham-

pion of the conflict theory. It is all themore gratifying, therefore, to call attentionto a book which does justice to the Moslemthinker in his capacities as an exponent of

Kulturgeschichte, of a comprehensive theoryof history free from value-judgments, andof a balanced sociology having as its pri-mary focus the fact of social change.

Professor Schmidts little volume of

sixty-seven pages has more packed withinits covers than many ponderous tomes-that must be granted. It is to be hoped,however, that Professor Schmidt, splen-didly equipped as he is to work with theArabic sources, will some day present thelearned world with a bulky volume on Ibn

Khaldun, for the Berber eminently war-

rants all the time and trouble thatone

man,at least, can lavish upon him, particularlywhen that man is no mere philologist,but gives evidence of a thorough under-

standing of the methodological problemswith which Ibn Khaldun grappled. In themeantime, no one interested in social or

sociological theory can afford to miss thisbook.

HOWARD BECKER

University of Pennsylvania

COUDENHOVE-KALERGI, HEINRICH. Das

Wesen des Antisemitismus

.

Pp. 284.Wien: Paneuropa Verlag, 1929.

With its bold challenge on its cover to theSwastika of the Hitlerites, this classic non-Jewish defense of the Jewish position is

brought up to date by the son of the author,

who provides an interesting memoir of hisfather, and an introductory chapter and aconclusion which discuss post-war anti-Semitism. Father and son are like-minded

in their sympathies for the Jews, but not intheir faith in ultimate world-wide tolerance.

The elder Kalergi, who retired from theactive life of anAustrian diplomat to amassa great library devoted to the Jewish prob-lem and to pen the results of his studies,created a mild sensation a generation agoby his thoroughgoing study of anti-Jewishfeeling and its causes. He had to disclaimJewish origin, so warm and complete washis espousal of the Jewish people.Attitude apart, the volume is a mine of

exact and carefully compiled information onthe denunciations of the Jews and in the

detailed exposure of the fallacies involved in

the current prejudices against the Jewish

people. Kalergi hews even closer to theline than Josephus did in his famousAgainstApion, for he examines, minutely, aspersionafter aspersion and builds each rejoinderout of a mass of evidence for which he giveschapter and verse from Bible, Talmud, orrabbinic writings or from anthropologists orsocial scientists.

Kalergi assumes that the Jews are a na-

tionality artificially created, to wit, an

amalgam of many nationalities that sup-ports a common religion and has beenfostered by voluntary as well as by forcible

separation from other peoples. This, he

believes, is the consequence of religiousconcepts. Their codes, the pressure underwhich they have lived, and the callings theyhave followed have evolved the specificJewish physical and moral types.This definition leads to at least a partial

acceptance of the Herzlian Zionist theorythat the movement of the mass of Jewsoutof Europe will advantage the minority re-

maining there and accepting more ofassimilation than has hitherto been possi-ble. The son is less responsive to this atti-tude. His is the rhetorical invitation to

the &dquo;better minds&dquo; to join forces in slayingthe monster, anti-Jewish prejudice. Eitherconclusion is less important than is the ma-terial painstakingly brought together tosubstantiate the viewpoint.

JACOB DE HAAS

New York City

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the annals of the american academy of political and social science-1931-becker-194-5

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