Book Reviews and Notices : American City Government. BY ERNST B. SCHULZ. (New York and Harrisburg: Stackpole and Heck. 1949. Pp. vii. 554. $5.00.)

• Author: George C.S. Benson
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200346
• Date: 01 September 1949
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

464

Apropos

of

the

latter

observation

Mr.

Rogers

develops

well

the

thesis

that

it

is

not

the

function

of

a

statesman

to

pander

willy-nilly

to

a

pre-

sumed

or

a

fabricated

public

opinion

but

to

counsel,

inform,

and

develop

opinion

out

of

the

facts

and

necessities

of

politics.

The

burden

of

the

volume

can

be well

summarized

by

quoting

from

Morris

R.

Cohen’s

essay

on

the

&dquo;Nature

of

Statistical

Knowledge.&dquo;

(From

his

Preface

to

Logic,

(Holt,

1944),

at

page

135):

It

is

only

when

by

good

fortune

the

randomness

of

our

samples

does

eliminate

the

fallacy

of

selection

that

a

larger

number

gives

better

evidence

than

a

smaller

num,

ber.

In

the

end,

the

truth

of

a

generalization

depends

on

the

homogeneity

of

the

group

with

respect

to

which

we

wish

to

generalize....

In

the

social

field,

therefore,

statistics

(read

polling)

cannot

take

the

place

of

analysis;

and

in

fact

acute

social

analysts

have

contributed

much

more

to

our

understanding

of

social

phenomena

than

those

who

without

genius

or

vision,

have

believed

that

the

mere

accumulation

of

instances

will

give

us

adequate

knowledge.

The

book

is

worth

pondering

for

it

contains,

besides

many

chuckles

(such

as

a

parody

of

Timestyle),

much

of

the

earthly

wisdom

of

a

master

of

the

nolitical

science

craft.

University

of

New

Mexico.

JACK

E.

HOLMES.

American

City

Government.

BY

ERNST

B.

SCHULZ.

(New

York

and

Harrisburg:

Stackpole

and

Heck.

1949.

Pp.

vii.

554.

$5.00.)

This

text

book

is

a

competent

review

of

city

government

designed

for

use

in

a

one

semester

course.

Footnotes

are

held

to

a

minimum,

but

references

at

the

end

of

each

chapter

include

recent

material.

Although

undistinguished,

the

style

is

clear.

The

book

gives

every

evidence

that

the

author’s

industry

and

capacity

are

equal

or

superior

to

his

competitors

on

the

roll

for

text

book

sales.

Accordingly,

it

is

without

the

least

disparagement

of

the

author,

when

the

reviewer

states

his

opinion

that

books

like

this

make

him

want

to

cry.

They

are

not

realistic

interpretations

of

municipal

government.

They

add

almost

nothing

to

the

sum

total

of

our

knowledge

about

the

government

of

men.

In

short,

they

represent

a

substantial

waste

of

time

of

a

man

who

has

shown

by

some

of

his

previous

writings

that

he

is

capable

of real

scholarly

work.

The

reviewer

recognizes

fully

the

financial

incentives

for

such

text

books

and

the

financial

handicaps

applicable

to

genuine

research.

He

also

realizes

that

we

need

a

few

good

text

books

for

the

large

classes

which

we

parade

through

our

institutions

in

the

name

of

education.

But

he

feels

very

pessimistic

about

the

development

of

a

real

political

science

so

long

as

our

good

men

devote

their

major

energies

to

volumes

like

this

one.

Claremont

Men’s

College.

GEORGE

C.

S.

BENSON.