Book Reviews and Notices : Most of the World: The Peoples of Africa, Latin America, and the East Today. EDITED BY RALPH LINTON. (New York: Columbia University Press. 1949. Pp. 917. $5.50.)

• Date: 01 September 1949
• Author: Elbert E. Miller
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200334
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

452

The

empire

holders

will

fight

a

losing

battle

against

nationalism,

and

in

this

period

of

unrest

&dquo;the

Western

powers

have

to

police

the

native

societies

which

are

in

a

status

of

rebellion.

They

are

bound

in

a

most

pathetic

way

to

maintain

order

contradictory

to

their

own

ideology

and

dangerous

to

the

interests

of

peace.&dquo;

If

the

United

Nations

were

a

stronger

organization,

trusteeship

ensuring

&dquo;reasonable

use

of

the

land&dquo;

would

be

the

best

possible

solution

to

the

problem.

The

volume

contains

helpful

maps,

a

comprehensive

bibliography,

and

an

index.

University

of

Oregon.

PAUL

S.

DULL.

Most

of

the

World:

The

Peoples

of

Africa,

Latin

America,

and

the

East

Today

.

EDITED

BY

RALPH

LINTON.

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press.

1949.

Pp.

917.

$5.50.)

This

book

is

a

study

of

the

peoples

and

their

living

conditions

in

that

part

of

the

world

which

the

stream

of

western

civilization

has

by-passed

for

so

long.

The

area

occupied

by

this

group

of

peoples

is

so

large

that

the

name

is

well

warranted.

The

book

is

the

work

of

a

group

of

authors

in

various

fields

of

social

science-geography,

anthropology,

sociology,

eco-

nomics,

and

political

science.

Like

most

books

which

are

a

symposium,

one

finds

several

instances

of

repetition.

Although

there

is

an

excellent

chapter

on

the

natural

resources

of

&dquo;Most

of

the

World,&dquo;

many

of

the

authors

take

it

upon

themselves

to

repeat

the

locations

of

these

valued

materials.

The

few

physical

maps

which

are

included

are

very

crude,

and

in-

telligent

reading

of

the

book

requires

frequent

consultation

of

a

good

atlas.

None

of

the

maps

has

an

indication

of

latitude

and

longitude;

some

do

not

even

give

a

scale.

A

few

minor

errors

have

crept

into

the

book

such

as

the

description

of

the

Kalahari

as

a

semi-desert

rather

than

a

true

desert,

and

the

statement

that

people

have

f orded

the

narrow

strip

of

water

between

Asia

and

Europe.

From

the

standpoint

of

up,to-date

statistics,

and

especially

those

on

economic

and

social

conditions,

this

book

probably

has

no

equal.

Such

valuable

figures

as

the

minimum

wages

in

Liberia

in

1945,

the

agricultural

productiveness

of

India,

how

much

the

average

factory

worker

of

Lima,

Peru,

spends

for

shelter,

electricity,

etc.,

can

be

found

in

this

book

and

perhaps

nowhere

else.

The

book

is

well

documented

and

the

selected

bibliographies

provide

the

reader

with

additional

sources

of

information

concerning

these

countries

where

statistics

are

difficult

to

obtain.

University

of

Utah.

ELBERT

E.

MILLER.