HENRY GRAYSON. The Crisis of the Middle Class. Pp. xv, 172. New York: Rinehart and Company, 1955. $2.75

• Author: Roscoe C. Hinkle
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625630400149
• Subject Matter: Articles

170

cross

section

of

the

current

popular

think-

ing

on

various

issues.

For

specialists,

this

collection

of

papers

will

serve

chiefly

as

a

roundup

of

familiar

ideas

about

the

aging

worker.

GERTRUDE

BANCROFT

U.

S.

Bureau

of

the

Census

W.

J.

H.

SPROTT.

Science

and

Social

Ac-

tion.

Pp.

164.

Glencoe,

Ill.:

The

Free

Press,

1954.

$3.50.

This

book

is

the

result

of

the

Josiah

Mason

Memorial

Lectures

at

Birmingham,

1953.

It

raises

questions

which

are

of

importance

to

the

student

of

social

science.

There

are

eight

chapters.

The

first

four

deal

respectively

with

the

nature

of

social

action;

personality,

society

and

culture;

the

scientific

approach;

and

the

small

group.

The

last

four

deal

with

the

subject

of

as-

similation,

deviants,

the

grand

manner,

and

the

sociology

of

knowledge.

It

is

the

au-

thor’s

contention

that

psychology

and

soci-

ology

are

elaborations

of

ideas

which

in-

evitably

arise

from

our

everyday

inter-

course

with

people

like

ourselves,

and

that

sociology

and

psychology

unavoidably

spring

from

social

action.

Social

action,

Sprott

holds,

is

the

basic

concept

in

the

social

sciences.

Four

aspects

of

social

ac-

tion

consist

of:

(1)

interaction

itself,

(2)

the

social

constructs

within

which

it

is

per-

formed,

(3)

the

beliefs

which

it

produces

and

which

in

turn

guide

it,

and

(4)

the

physical

and

demographic

environment

in

which

it

takes

place.

The

appearance

of

disorder

which

seems

to

arise

in

a

review

of

published

books

and

theses

are

due,

first

to

the

variation

in

the

fields

of

investigation;

second,

plausibility

does

not

require

the

establishment

of

a

theoretical

framework;

third,

the

subject

matter

is

difficult

to

handle,

partly

because

of

its

familiarity;

fourth,

the

social

scien-

tist

is

often

too

closely

associated

with

contemporary

problems;

and

fifth,

he

is

limited

by

opportunities

offered

him.

Be-

cause

of

our

ordinary

social

contacts,

many

of

us

feel

competent

to

speak

on

a

social

concept

without

any

investigation

what-

ever,

and

as

a

result

of

our

ignorance

of

what

is

actually

occurring,

a

&dquo;considerable

amount

of

research

is

pure

fact-finding

and

nothing

else.&dquo;

Since

a

social

system

is

a

dynamic

proc-

ess,

it

is

only

here

and

there

that

the

domi-

nant

features

of

beliefs

and

values

remain

constant

over

a

considerable

period.

To

obtain

absolute

validity

there

must

be

uni-

versal

agreement

since

only

in

terms

of

agreement

and

disagreement

between

per-

sons

is

there

any

sense

in

the

notion

of

&dquo;validity&dquo;.

This

book

by

Sprott

shows

an

excep-

tional

understanding

of

the

relation

of

sci-

entific

inquiry

to

the

field

of

social

action.

It

provides

the

entering

wedge

to

an

area

which

in

much

of

our

contemporary

socio-

logical

writing

and

research

has

been

some-

what

obscured.

M. C. ELMER

University

of

Pittsburgh

HENRY

GRAYSON.

The

Crisis

of

the

Middle

Class.

Pp.

xv,

172.

New

York:

Rine-

hart

and

Company,

1955.

$2.75.

The

middle

class,

Grayson

believes,

is

beset

by

a

crisis

that

threatens

its

very

existence.

Its

predicament,

which

stems

most

directly

from

the

increasing

circum-

scription

of

its

historic

innovative

role,

is

aggravated

by

the

growing

acuteness

of

the

more

fundamental

cultural

disequilibrium

of

Western

society.

Two

cultural

lags,

in-

volving

the

disparity

between

the

rate

at

which

social

problems

are

created

by

the

advance

of

the

natural

sciences

and

solved

by

the

social

sciences

and

the

incongruity

between

the

knowledge

of

the

intellectuals

and

the

popular

beliefs

of

the

masses,

only

add

to

the

gravity

of

its

plight.

Conse-

quently,

the

author’s

probe

of

the

crisis

of

the

middle

class

is

conducted

within

what

is

essentially

an

analysis

of

the

crisis

of

the

Western

world.

His

investigation

de-

parts

from

a

theory

of

the

structure

and

dynamics

of

civilization,

inquires

into

the

economic

aspects

of

the

major

cultural

epochs

of

Occidental

civilization,

examines

the

dimensions

of

the

modem

business

cycle,

and

outlines

the

alternatives

open

to

America

for

solving

the

problem

of

cultural

lags.

Nevertheless,

the

author

is

primarily

concerned

with

the

nature

of

the

middle

class,

its

origins,

vicissitudes,

and

pros-

pects.

Its

emergence

appears

to

require

the

ruler-slave

stratification

of

a

conquest