Sociology and Education

• Date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625630400140
• Author: Ralph L. Beals
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

163

tral

hiring

hall

with

a

group

of

registered

men

who

have

seniority

and

skill,

an

extra

board

for

men

who

customarily

work

in

gangs

and

are

used

for

replacement,

and

a

list

of

casual

employees.

A

conscious

effort

was

made

to

equalize

earnings

and

divide

work

equally

among

the

registered

employees

and

the

extra

board.

During

the

1920’s,

the

hiring

hall

was

under

the

control

of

the

employers;

since

the

1934

strike,

the

International

Longshoremen’s

and

Warehousemen’s

Union

has

been

a

full

partner

in

its

operation.

The

dispatchers

in

the

hiring

hall

are

chosen

by

the

ILWU

from

its

ranks.

The

governing

body

is

the

Joint

Labor

Relations

Committee

composed

of

equal

numbers

of

union

and

employer

representatives.

The

Seattle

hiring

hall

plan

is

not

the

perfect

answer;

employers

would

prefer

a

stabilized

labor

gang

of

superior

men

rather

than

a

rotating

system

including

all

workers.

Somewhat

the

same

criticism

has

arisen

in

England

under

its

dock

labor

scheme.

Nevertheless,

the

results

are

in-

finitely

superior

for

employers,

workers,

and

the

public

to

the

product

of

the

New

York

shape-up,

and

as

it

is

studied

and

adjusted,

improvements

may

be

expected.

FREDERICK

L.

RYAN

San

Diego

State

College

SOCIOLOGY

AND

EDUCATION

ROBERT

REDFIELD.

The

Little

Community:

Viewpoints

for

the

Study

of

a

Human

Whole.

Pp.

182.

Chicago,

Ill.:

Univer-

sity

of

Chicago

Press,

1955.

$4.00.

In

every

field

a

few

men

are

able

to

pre-

sent

their

research

so

that

it

stimulates

and

enriches

the

work

of

many

others.

In

an-

thropology,

Robert

Redfield

is

such

a

man,

and

The

Little

Community

should

provoke

thought,

inform

research,

and

provoke

cre-

ative

disagreement.

Explicitly,

The

Little

Community

exam-

ines

the

ways

in

which

a

small

community

may

be

studied

as

a

whole.

Implicitly,

it

is

a

history

of

one

phase

of

a

discipline

and

an

intellectual

autobiography

recounted

with

modesty-one

is

tempted

to

say

hu-

mility-by

a

distinguished

humane

scholar.

From

his

professional

beginnings

as

the-

by

modern

standards-rather

poorly

pre-

pared

student

of

Tepoztlan,

Redfield

clearly

emerges

as

a

man

always

deeply

concerned

with

the

meaning

of

his

activity,

both

for

the

world

of

scholarship

and

for

the

under-

standing

of

human

existence.

In

this

book

Redfield

explores

the

vari-

ous

ways

one

may

think

about

a

small

community

and

the

consequences

of

each

frame

of

reference.

Following

an

intro-

ductory

chapter,

he

takes

up

the

commu--

nity

viewed

as

an

ecological

system,

as a

social

structure,

as

a

set

of

life

patterns

for

its

members,

as

the

product

and

crea-

tor

of

a

kind

of

person,

as

an

outlook

on

life

or

system

of

ideas,

and

as

a

history.

He

also

considers

the

problem

of

the

com-

munity

as

a

member

of

a

collection

of

com-

munities

or

as

a

part

of

a

larger

commu-

nity

and

as

a

combination

of

opposite

tendencies.

He

concludes

with

a

discus-

sion

of

the

relation

between

the

whole

and

its

parts.

Each

of

these

ways

of

thinking

he

shows

will

produce

a

different

picture

of

the

whole.

Each

picture

has

its

value

as

well

as

its

deficiencies;

he

holds

out

little

comfort

for

those

who

seek

a

single

road

to

knowledge.

Little

attention

is

paid

to

technical

method

but

the

discussion

of

the

&dquo;inside&dquo;

(native)

view . of

a

community

versus

the

&dquo;outside&dquo;

view

and

the

development

of

concepts

and

relationships

is

of

particular

interest.

He

also

makes

clear

the

levels

of

difficulty

and

precision

involved

in

dif-

ferent

ways

of

studying

a

community.

The

Little

Community

is

a

sophisticated

book

simply

written.

The

intelligent

lay-

man

should

be

able

to

read

it

with

profit.

The

social

scientist

ought

to

read

it.

RALPH

L.

BEALS

Center

for

Advanced

Study

in

the

Behavioral

Sciences

Stanford,

Calif.

MORRIS

PLOSCOWE.

The

Truth

About

Di-

vorce.

Pp.

315.

New

York:

Hawthorn

Books,

1955.

$4.95.

Whatever

else

their

gifts,

most

lawyers

are

not

blessed

with

a

golden

pen;

indeed,

one

gets

the

impression

that

legal

jargon

is

to

lawyers

what

Latin

prescriptions

are

to

doctors:

symbolic

devices

to

befuddle

the