BUSTAMANTE Y MONTORO, A. S. DE. Teoria general del derecho. 2nd Ed. Pp. 272. La Habana: Editorial Alfa, 1940. No price

• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Author: N.S. Timasheff
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100182
• Date: 01 May 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

240

basis

for

inferences

from

the

circulation

of

the

various

types

of

literature

produced.

The

author

has

diligently

studied

a

va-

riety

of

public

sources:

almanacs,

messages

of

governors,

literature

of

antislavery,

peace,

and

temperance

groups,

newspapers,

religious

denominational

and

secular

maga-

zines,

educational

books

and

periodicals,

literature

of

and

for

agricultural

bodies,

textbooks,

college

speeches,

adult

education,

the

literature

of

political

protest,

and

so

forth;

and

an

extensive

array

of

secondary

materials.

Private

sources

are

not

included.

Though

attitudes

of

other

groups

toward

women

are

mentioned

occasionally,

the

literature

pertaining

to

women

and

their

relation

to

the

educational

movement

is

largely

neglected.

A

study

of

it

would

probably

show

more

connection

between

the

women’s

education

movement

and

the

struggle

for

education

generally

than

can

be

gathered

from

this

study.

The

goodly

bibliography

(pp.

237-69)

has

been

ex-

tensively

and

critically

used,

judging

from

a

comparison

of

the

text

with

the

sixty

pages

of

documentation.

Unfortunately,

placing

of

documentation

at

the

end

of

the

volume

lays

a

heavy

burden

on

critical

readers,

the

class

whose

interests

ought

to

be

first

considered

in

works

of

this

kind.

Use

of

the

bibliography

by

readers

and

other

students

would

have

been

facilitated

by

a

different

organization.

Its

twenty-

seven

major

divisions,

plus

numerous

sub-

divisions,

make

needlessly

laborious

any

effort

to

locate

information

concerning

par-

ticular

documents

referred

to

in

the

text.

The

labor

is

increased

by

the

vagaries

of

alphabetizing

in

certain

sections

(e.g.,

pp.

265

ff.).

The

good

index

enhances

the

book’s

usefulness.

A

few

of the

author’s

conclusions

relative

to

certain

groups

may

be

noted:

&dquo;intellec-

tual

leadership&dquo;

said

&dquo;virtually

nothing&dquo;

on

behalf

of

the

rising

&dquo;common

man&dquo;;

&dquo;very

few&dquo;

questioned

the

propriety

of

existing

social

arrangements

(p.

78).

Educators,

like

intellectuals,

attacked

&dquo;politics,&dquo;

de-

cried

the

&dquo;democratic

upsurge,&dquo;

avoided

&dquo;controversial

issues&dquo;

as

much

as

possible,

and

made

no

&dquo;concrete

and

widespread

ap-

peal&dquo;

to

rural

elements

(pp.

93

f.).

As

to

influence

of

the

rural

publicists,

it

was

&dquo;ap-

parently

very

limited&dquo;

(p.

152).

The

left-

wing

agitation

for

education

is

accorded

&dquo;secondary

weight,&dquo;

but

by

its

&dquo;implications

in

the

broad

field

of

politics

and

social

control&dquo;

it

provided

a

stimulus

which

through

others

was

significant

for

educa-

tional

progress

(p.

171).

In

general,

edu-

cation

at

the

time

of

the

common

school

revival

was

interlinked

with

problems

of

social

and

political

control;

it

was

an

instru-

ment

in

the

struggle

between

&dquo;industrial

capitalism

and

agriculture,

and

between

the

class

groups

within

both

areas.&dquo;

Educa-

tion,

the

author

concludes,

was

not

&dquo;the

paramount

issue&dquo;

at

any

time,

but

its

im-

portance

grew.

The

radical

demand

for

education

(1827-33)

accomplished

little;

but

decisive

events

(1834-37)

sharpened

the

movement

for

common

schools

(pp.

172

f.).

THOMAS

WOODY

University

of

Pennsylvania

BUSTAMANTE

Y

MONTORO,

A.

S.

DE.

Teoria

general

del

derecho.

2nd

Ed.

Pp.

272.

La

Habana:

Editorial

Alfa,

1940.

No

price.

According

to

the

author,

this

book

is

based

on

lectures

on

Introductory

Juris-

prudence

given

by

him

at

the

University

of

Habana.

It

is

of

the

type

of

the

&dquo;Gen-

eral

Theory

of

Law&dquo;

introduced

by

A.

Merkel

and

known

in

this

country

through

the

excellent

book

of

Korkunoff.

In

addi-

tion

to

the

preliminary

questions

of

what

is

law

and

what

the

methods

of

its

study

ought

to

be,

it

deals

with

the

structure

of

legal

norms,

the

concepts

of

subjective

rights

and

legal

personality,

and

the

analy-

sis

of

the

legal

order,

including

the

sources

of

law.

Two

aspects

of

the

book

are

significant.

First,

positive

law

and

legal

theories

of

Anglo-American

origin

are

completely

ig-

nored,

and

only

German,

French,

Italian,

and

Spanish

legal

thought

is

discussed.

It

appears

once

again

that

culture

provinces

do

not

correspond

to

geographic

divisions:

with

respect

to

law,

Latin

America

is

part

of

the

Iberian

Peninsula.

This

is

a

real

problem,

which

imposes

on

the

jurists

of

the

United

States

the

serious

task

of

mak-

ing

Latin

American

jurists

at

least

con-

scious

of

the

existence

of

Anglo-American

law

and

of

its

basic

problems.

at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on December 4, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from