'PIONEERS IN CRIMINOLOGY' SIR,—I am really terribly sorry to have
earned such a sharp rebuke from Dr. Hermann Mannheim. But it had never occurred to me that my first flippant sentence could be so misunderstood. Since 1935 Dr. Mannheim's lifework has been to fight an almost single-handed battle in favour of the recognition of criminology as an acadeinic discipline by British universities. He has pursued this campaign from an unprivileged corner of a sub-department in the London School of Economics. But now, suddenly, with a blare of Home Office trumpets, Cambridge has acquired an Institute of Criminology and pub- lishers are falling over each other to publish works relating to this 'new discipline.' The book which Dr. Mannheim has now edited is labelled The Library of Criminology No. 1 and for the life of me I cannot understand why the remark of which Dr. Mannheim complains is either inaccurate or objec- tionable. It is certainly not Dr. Mannheim's fault that, at this late date, a symposium of this kind published in London should perforce include only one contributor from Great Britain.
I feel equally guiltless over the matter of the British Journal of Criminology. Granted the limits of space which you could afford, my printed com- ment seems to me as informative and accurate as could be expected. Nevertheless, for all hurt feelings I apologise.—Yours faithfully, King's College, Cambridge EDMUND LEACH
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