Disorganization, Personal and Social. by Ernest R.

Mowrer
Review by: James M. Reinhardt
American Sociological Review, Vol. 9, No. 5 (Oct., 1944), pp. 594-595
Published by: American Sociological Association
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594 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
to sociologists will be the numerous passages did not stop to press the point-nor did he or
referring to Turner as "a sociological historian," any other Puritan minister return to it at greater
or as an exponent of "the sociological way of length in any other place. Rather the ministers
writing history." Amusement for some meth- did their best to make it difficult for an un-
odologists will be provided by the amateurish regenerate man to enter a godly family. ...
definitions of the roles of history and sociology The Puritans had a neat theological explanation
respectively; here is a sample: "Where the for this neglect of the mass of men. The argu-
labor of the sociologist ended, the task of the ment was simple: comparatively few people are
historian began. His was the function of explain- saved anyhow, and those who do (sic!) almost
ing how that which was had come to be." From always belong to the same families. . .. The
this it is apparent that although some sociolo- church, therefore, in neglecting a large propor-
gists wish to treat history as an auxiliary disci- tion of the population neglects very few poten-
pline, there is a body of historians equally de- tial saints. . . . The Puritan system failed, be-
termined to treat sociology as an auxiliary disci- cause the Puritans relied upon their children to
pline. The possibilities of gratifying controversy provide the church with members and the state
opened up by such remarks seem to be almost with citizens. Even when it became apparent
endless, but some of us will be tempted to that their children were not up to the task, they
ignore the debate in favor of the application of did not take the obvious step of looking for
methodological principles to empirical research- material elsewhere. . . . They refused to go
in short, in favor of sawing wood. outside the pale, and the natural consequence
HOWARD BECKER was their downfall."
University of Wisconsin ARTHURW. CALHOUN
Sterling College
The Puritan Family. By EDMUND S. MORGAN.
Boston: Trustees of the Public Library, I944. Disorganization, Personal and Social. By ERNEST
Pp. ii8. $i.oo. R. MOWRER.Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott
These "Essays on Religion and Domestic Re- Company, I942. Pp. iX + 682. No price
lations in Seventeenth-Century New England" indicated.
are well documented with abundant sources and The author states in the preface that "The
helpfully illustrated with facsimiles from the purpose of this book is to present a systematic
sources. The material has been well assimilated analysis of some of the major problems of per-
and the result is entertaining and instructive. sonal and social disorganization." The analysis
The distinctive chapter is the final essay on centers around the thesis that an inter-causal re-
"Puritan Tribalism" in which the author under- lation exists between social and personal dis-
takes to show that "the Puritans became so organization and that an analysis of social
concerned for the salvation of their children disorganization implies the necessity of knowing
that they forgot the universal significance of what comprises the social organization itself.
the Christian gospel. Instead of spreading their The social organization may hypothetically be
faith abroad, they tried to entail it to their own conceived as an unchanging "ideal-construct";
progeny. . . ." The first Reformers "had won actually however, this is never the case, since
their way by converting their enemies. But by some instability is characteristic of all societies.
the opening of the seventeenth century the Social instability varies widely in nature and
evangelical fire was burning low. . . . To save degree from one society to another.
one's children for the cause naturally seemed Since from the author's point of view, "So-
more important than wresting hardened sinners ciety and the individual are complementary
from the hands of a powerful enemy." Little aspects" of the same thing, the social life,
was done by the New England settlers toward neither personal nor social disorganization can
the conversion of the savages or the horde of be studied independently of the other. From this
ungodly immigrants. The Puritans "preached point of view, the author proceeds to show the
and coaxed and prayed in order to save their relation of social change to "processes of inno-
own children for Christ, but they let the rest vation," and then to an interpretation of a
of the world go freely to Hell." John Cotton's variety of discordant elements in modern so-
"The Covenant of God's Free Grace" left to ciety. The author pays generous tribute to
poor sinners "an avenue by which to enter the Cooley and his followers for their contributions
Covenant . . .: they could get into a good to his own basic concepts.
family, as servants or by marriage. But Cotton The book is well written and graphically

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 BOOK REVIEWS
illustrated. Every page bears the mark of ripe
scholarship and refined thought.
I have only one criticism to make. It seems to
me that in the light of the original thesis, an
undue amount of emphasis is given to the part
played by the individual in the "genesis" of
social disorganization. For instance: ". . . any
form of variant behavior which disturbs the
integration of the attitude systems within the
personality represents personal disorganization.
"Thus social change, social disorganization, and
personal disorganization all have their genesis in
the variant behavior of individuals." (page 26)
Tabular materials on which the graphs and
charts are based are provided in the appendix.
JAMES M. REINHARDT
University of Nebraska
The Condition of Man. By LEWISMuMFORD.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,
I944. Pp. x + 467. $5.00.
Here is a remarkable book, a book that is
simultaneously a major achievement of Ameri-
can social science, a confession of faith, and a
call to action. Of vital significance for the pro-
fessional sociologist, it still cannot be judged
by ordinary academic standards; every thinking
man whose intellectual fare is chosen from levels
higher than that of Reader's Digest will find
nourishment in these pages. No review can do
justice to the wealth of scholarship and wisdom
they incorporate; I have read the book three
times, and with each reading I find fresh sources
of exaltation and new reasons for humility.
To me, at least, Mumford has long been a
remote and somewhat awesome figure, possessed
of sensitivity few of us can claim, and yet
"scientifically" suspect because of the aura of
the "intellectual" that hovers about him. Even
those of us who have long suspected that the
disparagement of the "intellectual" by some
American sociologists has been the outgrowth of
sheer envy, that aura has a forbidding tinge.
When you add to this the fact that some recent
far-flung surveys of man and his ways have been
characterized by brutal dogmatism and boastful
vituperation (let us name no names!), it is easy
to see why Mumford has a considerable degree
of resistance to overcome where most workaday
readers are concerned. If my own experience
affords any ground for prophecy, however, I
can say positively that those who will read a
few of the opening pages of this book will find
themselves continuing to the end, and though
they may not share my enthusiasm, the curse
of "intellectual" will at last be lifted.
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595
Third in what we must now call Mumford's
great trilogy, the present volume, by the author's
own statement, is introductory to the other two
in a fundamental sense. In other words, the
rationale of Technics and Civilization and The
Culture of Cities was not and could not clearly
be apparent when these volumes were published
in I934 and I938, respectively.Only now does
The Condition of Man provide the background
against which the outline of the two earlier
treatises can be sharply discerned.
And the background is a somber one; rarely
in the long perspective of history, says Mum-
ford, has the estate of humanity been so fraught
with the potentialities of doom. We can still be
saved, but the sands are running out; as our
author puts it, "unless we now rebuild ourselves,
all our external triumphs will crumble" (page
423).
Thus the tone, the mood, the all-pervading
thesis of this book. What is its argument and the
evidence brought forward in its support? Let
me say at once that the argument is by no
means simple, and that any summary statement
of it will border on travesty. Perhaps a direct
quotation will reduce the unfairness to the in-
escapable minimum:
The emergenceof man from his purely animal
state consists in the constant increaseof the ratio
of higher needs to lower needs, and in the fuller
contribution of his vitalities and energies to the
molding of more richly endowed and more fully
expressivepersonalities.. . . The great gains that
were made in technicsduringthe last few centuries
were largely offset by a philosophy that either
denied the validity of man's higher needs or that
sought to foster only that limited set of interests
which enlargedthe power of scienceand gave scope
to a power personality.At a moment when a vast
surplus was available for the goods of leisure and
culture,the very ideals of leisure and culture were
cast into disrepute-except when they could be
turned to profit. Here lies the core of the inner
crisis that has afflictedour civilizationfor at least
two centuries(page414).
Here are echoes of Toynbee, Burckhardt,
Friedell, Spengler, Freud, and, in particular,
Victor Branford and Patrick Geddes. Yet, no
matter how many predecessors have advanced
Mumford's essential argument and no matter
how intense his discipleship may be where
Geddes is concerned, he is entitled to say with
the Ayr farmer, "I melked three hunder' coos
for it, but the butter I mak' is my ain." The
cogent use Mumford has made of the vital ideas
of his forerunners, plus his own penetrating
insights, give him the rank of a distinctly
original thinker.