Book Reviews : A Study of Power. By HAROLD D. LASSWELL, CHARLES E. MERRIAM, and T. V. SMITH. (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press. 1950. Pp. 373. $6.00.)

• Published date: 01 September 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400319
• Author: Marvin W. Heath
• Date: 01 September 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

502

It

is

regrettable

that

the

manifest

need

for

a

study

of

the

theory

and

practice

of

modern

totalitarianism

is

not

satisfied

by

Miss

Arendt’s

work.

Her

book

is

rather

a

distressingly

fitting

complement

to

her

other

major

work,

The

Concept

of

Love

in

St.

Augustine.

Perhaps

Miss

Arendt’s

next

book

will

be

a

study

not

in

politics,

but

instead

avowedly

in

the

fields

in

which

she

received

her

university

training-theology

and

Greek.

University

of

California

at

Los

Angeles.

CURRIN

V.

SHIELDS.

A

Study

of

Power.

By

HAROLD

D.

LASSWELL,

CHARLES

E.

MERRIAM,

and

T.

V.

SMITH.

(Glencoe,

Illinois:

The

Free

Press.

1950.

Pp.

373.

$6.00.)

This

is

not

a

treatise

on

power

resulting

from

the

collaboration

of

these

three

well-known

professors.

It

is

three

studies

on

different

aspects

of

the

theme,

which

first

appeared

as

separate

books

in

1934,

and

are

now

available

in

one

volume.

Lasswell’s

study

is

entitled

World

Politics

and

Security;

Merriam’s

is

Political

Power;

and

Smith’s

is

Power

and

Con-

science.

Although

there

is

nothing

to

indicate

that

these

three

works

were

ever

considered

as

parts

of

a

single,

co-ordinated

study,

the

fact

that

they

were

all

published

in

the

same

year

by

three

members

of

the

faculty

of

the

University

of

Chicago

leads

to

the

belief

that

each

author

had

knowledge

of

the

researches

of

the

others.

Aside

from

this

coincidence,

the

studies

actually

have

very

little

in

common

except

that

they

all

are

concerned

with

the

phenomena

of

power.

As

is

suggested

by

the

title

of

his

work,

Lasswell,

using

the

tools

of

the

psychologist,

has

considered

the

problems

of

the

individual

in

his

insecure

environment.

His

primary

aim

appears

to

be

the

development

of

a

more

scientific

method

for

the

political

scientist

and

a

more

exact

terminology.

The

new

method,

which

Lasswell

calls

configurative

an-

alysis,

is

inadequately

explained

in

his

first

chapter

which

is

entitled

&dquo;The

Configurative

Analysis

of

the

World

Value

Pyramid.&dquo;

Merriam

is

much

more

modest

in

his

aims.

He

does

not

claim

to

be

presenting

a

&dquo;new

synthesis&dquo;

of

power,

but

rather

&dquo;notes&dquo;

on

political

power-&dquo;observations

as

I

have

journeyed

along&dquo;

(p.

13).

He

begins

with

a

study

of

the

various

situations

in

human

relations

from

which

political

power

develops,

carrying

it

through

the

various

embellishments

with

which

power

is

obscured

or

made

palatable.

Merriam

brings

his

wealth

of

research

and

practical

experience

to

bear

on

this

problem,

but

his

re-

marks

are

of

such

a

general

nature

that

they

may

be

obscure

to

one

who

is

less

learned.