Reba N. Soffer. Ethics and Society in England: The Revolution in the Social Sciences 1870-1914. Pp. 366. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978
| DOI | 10.1177/000271627944100131 |
| Author | Stanley Pierson |
| Published date | 01 January 1979 |
| Date | 01 January 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
211
tics
the
author
has
sought
to
reconstruct
the
struggles
of
this
third
force
in
the
early
years
of
the
Second
Austrian
Republic,
and
to
analyze
the
initial
limited
success
and
the
eventual
failure
of
the
movement.
It
was
this
third
force,
according
to
the
author,
that
attracted
the
former
Nazis
and
never
fully
escaped
from
the
lingering
shadow
of
Nazism.
The
best
parts
of
the
book
are
those
sections
which
describe
the
efforts
by
Kraus
and
Reiman,
two
men
who
bore
no
trace
of
Nazism
in
their
past,
to
trans-
form
the
Club
of
Independents
into
an
effective
third
force
in
Austrian
politics.
Appeals,
for
example,
to
end
the
per-
secution
of
former
Nazis
and
to
call
for
their
reintegration
into
society,
when
made
by
men
who
had
been
imprisoned
during
the
Nazi
era,
won
a
large
per-
sonal
following
among
the
disenfran-
chised
but
also
received
a
permanent
taint
from
the
Nazi
shadow.
The
author
is
also
very
effective
in
dealing
with
the
problems
centering
on
the
German
na-
tional
heritage.
Admittedly,
most
Aus-
trians
did
not
want
to
reunite
with
Germany,
but
at
the
same
time
many
Austrians
did
not
want
to
develop
too
distinctive
a
heritage.
Moreover,
the
omnipresent
economic
ties
reminded
everyone
of
the
close
relationship
be-
tween
Germany
and
Austria.
The
sections
on
voting
analysis
are
weaker
than
the
descriptive
narrative.
In
particular,
the
author
emphasized
the
elections
of
1949
and
those
of
1953
to
1956,
the
latter
years
marking
the
end
of
the
occupation
and
the
formulation
of
the
Austrian
State
Treaty.
Often
the
in-
ferences
drawn
from
aggregate
voting
tables
appear
too
farreaching
for
the
voting
statistics
on
which
they
are
based.
While
his
research
is
primarily
from
the
fifties
and
the
sixties,
the
author’s
con-
clusion
provides
a
sensitive
discussion
of
Austrian
politics
in
the
last
decade.
This
work
is
a
solid
introduction
to
a
fascinating
problem.
Students
of
Aus-
trian
politics
will
obviously
profit
from
it.
CHARLES
J.
HERBER
George
Washington
University
Washington
D.C.
REBA
N.
SOFFER.
Ethics
and
Society
in
England:
The
Revolution
in
the
Social
Sciences
1870-1914.
Pp.
366.
Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1978.
As
the
subtitle
suggests
this
is
a
book
with
a
thesis.
The
author
attempts
to
rescue
English
social
thought
during
the
decades
before
World
War
I
from
undue
neglect
and
from
those
who
deny
that
the
English
made
any
&dquo;distinctive
con-
tribution
to
the
rethinking
of
the
funda-
mental
concepts&dquo;
of
social
theory.
Ms.
Soffer
argues,
in
brief,
that
the
work
of
Alfred
Marshall
in
economics,
Wil-
liam
James
in
psychology,
and
Graham
Wallas
in
political
science,
constituted
a
&dquo;revolution.&dquo;
In
place
of
the
positivis-
tic
outlook
and
deductive
methods
which
dominated
these
areas
of
inquiry
in
the
nineteenth
century,
the
new
social
scientists
were
empirical
in
ap-
proach
and
practical
in
their
purposes.
And
in
opposition
to
the
deterministic
bent
of
earlier
social
theory
the
new
thinkers
affirmed
human
agency.
Along-
side
the
&dquo;revolutionaries,&dquo;
Ms.
Soffer
also
delineates
a
new
school
of
social
psychologists,
particularly
William
McDougall
and
Wilfred
Trotter,
whom
she
designates
&dquo;revisionists.&dquo;
Occupied
mainly
with
collective
or
&dquo;crowd&dquo;
be-
havior,
fearful
of
the
irrational
ten-
dencies
of
modern
democracy,
Mc-
Dougall
and
Trotter
reinstated
the
older
conservative
emphasis
on
the
role
of
elites
in
solving
social
problems.
Ms.
Soffer
commands
a
large
and
complex
body
of
material,
not
only
the
writing
produced
by
her
protagonists,
but
that
of
a
number
of
transitional
figures
including
Spencer,
Jevons,
Sidg-
wick,
and
Pearson.
She
also
relates
her
themes
quite
successfully
to
the
late
Victorian
cultural
crisis,
conveying
both
a
sense
of
the
growing
uncertainty
about
values
and
the
continuing
re-
formist
commitments
of the
new
genera-
tion
of
social
thinkers.
She
is
less
suc-
cessful
in
showing
how
the
deepening
economic
and
political
conflicts
of
the
period
influenced
the
new
theories.
The
study
is
marred
by
dubious
asser-
tions.
Does
it
make
sense,
for
example,
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