Book Reviews : The Accidental Century. By MICHAEL HARRINGTON. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1965. Pp. 322. $5.95.)
| Author | S. Sidney Ulmer |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296601900131 |
| Published date | 01 March 1966 |
| Date | 01 March 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
171
They
should
not
be
held
for
more
than
this.
Second,
the
substance,
given
the
frame
of
reference,
should
be
appraised.
Twelve
Doors
to
Japan
contains
the
lecture
material
for
the
University
of
iVlich-
igan,
Center
for
Japanese
Studies,
multidiscipline
course
required
of
all
Japanese
area
graduate
students.
The
authors
state
that
their
aim
is
&dquo;to
provide
introductory
information
to
those
who
know
relatively
little
about
Japan
beforehand;
and,
second,
to
acquaint
students
with
the
aims,
materials,
and
methods
of
disciplines
other
than
the
one
they
have
been
best
trained
for
by
their
undergraduate
work.&dquo;
If
the
re-
viewer
had
to
recommend
one
book
to
a
student
desiring
to
acquire
a
well-balanced
basic
understanding
of
present-day
Japan,
it
would
be
this
volume
without
second
thought.
The
attainment
of
the
second
goal
has
long
been
the
relatively
unsolved
problem
inherent
in
area
studies.
The
interdisciplinary
course
in
American
edu-
cation
has
presented
a
real
problem:
it
has
wavered
between
an
approach
that
has
ignored
the
rigors
of
any
discipline,
and
a
collection
of
disciplinary
sections
in
which,
beyond
the
student’s
own
discipline,
the
material
has
been
so
stated
in
the
specialized
vocabulary
and
models
of
the
other
disciplines
as
to
be
of
little
value.
This
book
has
avoided
the
two
extremes.
The
authors
have
realized
the
necessity
for
training
within
a
discipline;
they
have
rejected
extreme
compartmentation
by
showing
the
relevancy
of
one
discipline
to
another
in
language
that
any
student
can
comprehend.
Their
clear
explanation
is
of
value
to
the
whole
field
of
education.
The
twelve
doors
of
Japan
are
the
individual
chapters
on
geography,
cultural
anthropology,
history,
language,
literature,
visual
arts,
religion
and
philosophy,
per-
sonality
psychology,
education,
politics,
law,
and
economics.
The
chapters
on
language
and
personality
psychology
were
particularly
ex-
citing.
The
inclusion
of
Whorfian
metalinguistics
has
been
long
overdue.
The
relatively
new
inclusion
of
personality
psychology
in
an
area
study
was
also
welcome.
However,
the
Japanese
personality
was
presented
as
measured
by
tests
devised
from
Western
values
and
conceived
in
Western
languages,
i.e.,
tests
based
upon
&dquo;Freudian
concepts.&dquo;
Freud
was
a
product
of
late
nineteenth-century morality
based
upon
absolute values
concerning
sin.
Do
the
Japanese
have
similar
absolute
values?
If
not,
do
not
adjustments
have
to
be
made
to
make
the
data
of
tests
such
as
the
Rorschach,
relevant?
Or
will
not
new
tests
based
upon
Japanese
values
have
to
be
devised
de
novo
by
Japanese
psychologists
without
dependence
upon
Freudian
con-
cepts ?
After
reading
the
chapters
on
cultural
anthropology
and
language
it
would
seem
the
answer
must
be
affirmative.
However,
the
authors
do
not
claim
to
answer
all
questions
or
not
to
raise
new
ones.
For
all
that
they
have
accomplished,
the
ver-
dict
on
this
book
must
be
a
strong:
&dquo;Well
done!&dquo;
PAUL
S.
DULL
University
of
Oregon
The
Accidental
Century.
By
MICHAEL
HARRINGTON.
(New
York:
The
Macmillan
Company,
1965.
Pp. 322.
$5.95.)
Michael
Harrington
is
a
man
who
feels
deeply
what
he
depicts
as
the
crises
of
the
age.
Taking
the
twentieth
century
as
the
relevant
historical
period,
he
sug-
gests
that
&dquo;the
chasm
between
technological
capacity
and
economic,
political,
social,
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