Book Reviews : Arms and Politics in Latin America. By EDWIN LIEUWEN. (Published for the Council on Foreign Relations. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1960. Pp. xiii, 296. $4.75.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300334
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Author: Russell H. Fitzgibbon
• Subject Matter: Articles

822

approaches

which

are

utilized

in

these

six

diverse

fields.

The

contributors

are

Raymond

Aron

(history);

Henry

M.

Hart,

Jr.,

and

John

T.

McNaughton

(law);

Erik

H.

Erikson

(clinical

psychoanalysis);

Martin

Deutsch

(nuclear

research);

Paul

F.

Lazarsfeld

(social

research);

and

Jacob

Fine

(medical

research).

Daniel

Lerner,

as

editor,

contributes

a

perceptive

and

mediatory

introduction.

What

emerges

from

the

six

narratives

is

only

a

minimum

agreement

on

methodologies

- perhaps

no

more

that

a

common

dedication

to

a

&dquo;scientific

approach.&dquo;

Once

the

problem

is

identified

in

either

field,

the

procedures

for

treatment

begin

to

diverge.

For

the

historian,

the

jurist,

and

the

physician,

the

factor

of

personal

judgment

&dquo;must

play

the

decisive

role

in

assembling

the

evi-

dence,

drawing

the

inference,

and

formulating

the

conclusion

in

each

case

they

consider.&dquo;

Each

of

these

deals,

moreover,

with

particular

cases

rather

than

generalized

regularities,

and

only

minimum

probability

can

be

inferred

from

the

evidence

of

particular

cases.

The

psychoanalyst

works

within

somewhat

more

of

a

unified

theory,

and

at

least

tentatively

finds

it

possible

to

identify

some

com-

mon

evidence

from

which

probable

inferences

may

be

drawn.

But

the

subjec-

tive

element

in

both

the

practitioner

and

the

patient

remains

a

powerful

factor.

The

two

remaining

fields

of

nuclear

research

and

social

research

seem

to

exhibit

a

greater

degree

of

congeniality

in

concept

and

method.

Both

share

the

confidence

in

a

probabilistic

universe

and

in

empirical

and

quantitative

tech-

niques.

Lazarsfeld,

in

particular,

provides

a

detailed

and

useful

outline

of

the

methods

utilized

in

survey

research

on

social

issues.

But

it

is

perhaps

appropriate

that

it

is

he

who

ends

his

discourse

with

the

wise

comment:

&dquo;In

a

Colloquium,

the

theme

of

which

is

the

unity

of

the

sciences,

it

is

salutary

to

revise

the

old

French

proverb:

the

more

it

is

the

same,

the

more

one

should

stress

the

differ-

ences.&dquo;

Apart

from

this

issue,

however,

each

of

the

essays

is

worth

reading

for

its

intrinsic

value

in

demonstrating

the

contemporary

procedures

peculiar

to

its

dis-

cipline.

LOUIS

WASSERMAN

San

Francisco

State

College

Arms

and

Politics

in

Latin

America.

By

EDWIN

LIEUWEN.

(Published

for

the

Council

on

Foreign

Relations.

New

York:

Frederick

A.

Praeger,

1960.

Pp.

xiii,

296.

$4.75.)

It

is

surprising

that

with

virtually

everyone

admitting

the

important

political

role

played

by

the

army

as

an

institution

in

the

public

life

of

every

Latin-Amer-

can

state

at

one

time

or

another,

no

outstanding,

objective,

general

analysis

of

that

role

has

hitherto

appeared.

It

is

axiomatic,

a

political

fact

of

life,

that

in

more

than

one

Latin-American

republic

even

in

1960

if

one

wishes

to

get

some-

thing

done

in

politics

he

first

clears

with

-

(insert

here

the

name

of

the

key

general

in

that

country’s

army).

Professor

Lieuwen,

working

on

a

Carnegie

Fellowship

in

1957-58,

has

ex-

cellently

filled

that

lacuna

with

his

authoriship

of

the

present

volume.

There

have

previously

been

adequate

biographies

of

this

or

that

caudillo,

articles

or