BOOTH, GEORGE C. Mexico's School-Made Society. Pp. xi, 175. Stanford Univer sity: Stanford University Press, 1941. $2.50

Date01 May 1942
DOI10.1177/000271624222100153
Published date01 May 1942
Subject MatterArticles
215
tion.
Such
an
educational
task
calls
for
a
peculiar
type
of
administrator
and
teacher.
He
will
have
to
be
humble,
yet
farseeing,
and
to
work
for
ends
broader
than
national-
ism
and
racial
distinction.
The
author
pays
high
tribute
to
the
sane
and
far-reaching
recommendations
of
the
Phelps-Stokes
and
other
commissions
which
have
studied
na-
tive
needs
and
made
similar
recommenda-
tions.
Nigeria
he
thinks
is
now
ready
for
their
implementation.
The
book
is
well
written,
splendidly
docu-
mented,
readable,
and
interesting
through-
out.
CHARLES
W.
COULTER
University
of
New
Hampshire
BOOTH,
GEORGE
C.
Mexico’s
School-Made
Society.
Pp.
xi,
175.
Stanford
Univer-
sity:
Stanford
University
Press,
1941.
$2.50.
This
book
is
a
very
brief
and
very
casual
review
of
a
very
important
subject.
The
contents
spread
over
territory
broad
enough
to
sustain
a
far
more
comprehensive
work.
The
book
includes
something
of
the
philoso-
phy,
the
political
history,
the
content,
and
the
methods
of
Mexican
education;
but
the
treatment
is
cursory
and
the
organization
is
loose.
The
author’s
main
thesis
is
not
altogether
clear,
but
it
appears
to
be
that
Mexico
is
going
to
make
its
future
(if
at
all)
through
its
school
system,
and
through
its
rural
school
system
in
particular.
In
the
course
of
developing
the
thesis
there
is
a
review
of
the
important
documents,
a
brief
de-
scription
of
the
school
system,
some
discus-
sion
of
Rivera
and
Orozco,
a
chapter
on
music,
several
pages
on
the
cultural
mis-
sion,
and
a
few
remarks
in
closing
to
the
effect
that
some
schools
are
good,
others
bad,
human
beings
are
much
alike,
and
the
important
fact
is
that
Mexico
is
trying,
and
after
all,
only
time
will
tell.
The
reader
is
entitled
to
wonder
just
what
audience
the
author
had
in
mind
for
his
book.
He
visited
Mexico
in
the
interest
of
his
work,
but
it
is
informed
by
no
special
insight.
It
aspires
to
more
than
simple
ex-
position,
and
falls
far
short
of
genuine
inter-
pretation.
The
book
reminds
one
from
time
to
time
of
an
examination
paper
in
which
the
object
is
to
prove
a
sufficient
grasp
of
the
information.
It
does
prove
this,
but
it
may
be
wondered
whether
that
is
sufhcient
ground
for
publication.
LLOYD
H.
FISHER
Berkeley,
California
GALDAMES,
LUIS.
A
History
of
Chile.
Pp.
xviii,
565.
Chapel
Hill:
The
University
of
North
Carolina
Press,
1941.
$5.00.
All
readers
who
are
interested
in
the
his-
tory
of
Latin
America
are
doubtless
familiar
by
this
time
with
the
plan
of
the
Inter-
American
Historical
Series,
to
which
the
present
volume
belongs.
In
conformity
with
that
plan,
a
standard
brief
history
of
Chile
by
one
of
its
leading
historians,
Luis
Galdames,
was
chosen
for
translation,
and
the
work
of
translating
and
editing
was
en-
trusted
to
one
of
our
own
outstanding
au-
thorities
on
the
history
of
Chile,
Isaac
Joslin
Cox
of
Northwestern
University.
The
result
was
a
happy
one,
and
the
vol-
ume
under
review
will
probably
prove
one
of
the
most
useful
in
this
series.
The
origi-
nal
work
by
Galdames
is
one
of
the
best-
balanced
of
all
the
standard
national
his-
tories
of
Latin
American
countries.
Most
of
them
suffer
from
excessive
concentration
both
on
the
political
aspects
of
their
history
and
also
on
the
period
of
the
wars
of
inde-
pendence.
The
present
work,
on
the
other
hand,
devotes
only
244
pages
to
the
history
of
Chile
from
the
eve
of
the
Spanish
con-
quest
to
1830,
as
compared
with
205
pages
on
its
history
from
1830
to
1940;
and
it
contains
a
good
deal
of
information
about
the
economic,
social,
and
intellectual
de-
velopment
of
Chile,
though
political
events
still
form
the
main
theme.
Besides
translating
this
useful
work
into
very
readable
English,
Professor
Cox
added
greatly
to
its
value
by
providing
it
with
bibliographical
and
explanatory
footnotes,
a
95-page
appendix
of
biographical
notes,
alphabetically
arranged,
and
an
eight-page
bibliography.
The
biographical
appendix
is
a
unique
feature
and
should
prove
a
most
valuable
one,
since
to
the
average
student
the
great
majority
of
Latin
American
lead-
ers,
past
and
present,
are
only
names.
Galdames,
who
died
late
in
1941,
be-
longed
to
the
older
generation
of
Chilean
historians,
and
the
apparatus
added
by
Pro-
fessor
Cox
does
not
always
provide
the
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