Principles of Social Psychology. By James Mickel Williams. (George Allen
and Unwin. 258.)
This work is a study of man's instincts of rivalry and domination in relation to social activities ; and it is a pity that the author, an American sociologist, should have chosen for his book a title so similar to Professor McDougall's famous treatise—An Introduction to Social Psychology. A comparison of the two works would, as well as being invidious, be out of place, as they arc as unlike each other in subject-matter as they are alike in title. A benevolent (but not too critical) intellectualism is demanded of the reader as a suitable attitude to adopt when reading the book ; and as far as we can see the same mental attitude plus a good sprinkling of Christian abnegation is the author's solution of social conflict. The author shows a genius for the laborious and conscientious exposition of the obvious ; and as we toil through chapter after chapter, finding the same spectres of Rivalry and Domination grinning at us through ineffectual masks in every sphere of modern life, we are amazed at the author's mass of reading and capacity for taking pains. The book is, however, by no means without value, and could be read with advantage by all employers of labour, a large proportion of whom seem to take delight in blinding themselves to the obvious, and who so frequently fail to realize that as em- ployers' they are not merely individuals but integral parts of a vast social system, an insight into the workings of which requires great understanding and co-operation in which implies grave respon:sibilities.
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