LIBRARY AND WORKSHOP
wealth of sociological techniques to analyze carefully lated the development of industry not because its
publications, the local press, and records of interviewers.
In the light of this rich factual data, Dr. Underwood
went on to make a subtle analysis of the two religious
forces which play such an important role in American
social life.
From every angle this is a book to be recommended.
Dr. Underwood throws, for example, some searching
new light on the way in which Protestantism in America
can never be understood until it is seen as, amongst
other things, molded by the outlook of business groups.
Similarly whilst Roman Catholicism may claim to be
universal, in actual fact it echoes in its life all the con-
sequences of its identification in America with immi-
grant groups. One wishes that Professor Underwood
would now go back to the "Paper City" and do a second
study in the light of two facts. The first is that it was
the c.I.a. Textile Union which finally provided a home
for Margaret Sanger's meeting. The other is that today,
nearly twenty years later, the labor unions, like the
churches, have become prosperous and presumably
now reflect, as the churches did before, the fact that
they, too, have "arrived."
Dr. Bellah, like Dr. Underwood, conducts his study
in the light of the same awareness of the relevance of
the theological issues as something which are never
completely subsumed under sociological categories. In
the light of this premise, he proceeds to utilize the well
known approaches of the Max Weber tradition to
answer the question of whether, during the Tokugawa
period from 1600 to 1868, Japan was being prepared
outside the economic and technological realms for the
rapid industrialization of the modern period. He brings
to his study not only all that he has learned as a sociolo-
gist at Harvard but a knowledge of Japanese literature
and language which surely makes him unique among
first-class sociologists who have quarried in the the
difficult-but most rewarding-field of the interrelation
between religion and culture.
His work, moreover, is undoubtedly a study of first-
class relevance for all those who are dealing with the
highly intricate problems emerging out of the indus-
trialization of the so-called backward nations. After
having read his book no one, whether he be a business-
man or a diplomat or a missionary, can any longer
remain satisfied with the conventional categories of
thought about the relation between religion, the state,
and society now current in American thought, both
within and without sociology. A fresh theory is needed.
The Communists have such a theory (coming out of
Fuerbach) as utilized by Marx and developed by
Lenin. This theory, in spite of its inadequacy, is still
superior both to the conventional liberal theory of
religion for which religion is simply a live option for
individuals or to that of Comte and his followers
which for too long has dominated sociological theory.
I know of no book which precipitates the searching
questions involved once the inadequacy of a Marxist or
a "liberal" or a "positivist" interpretation of religion
has been accepted.
He will, indeed, be a bold man who cares to challenge
Dr. Bellah's conclusions: Political values were much
more basic to the emergence of an industrial society
than one would expect; Japanese religion stimu-
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179
value system was immediately appropriate to the
emergence of economic patterns of thought and loyal-
ities but rather because (and here it is distinctly unlike
the European situation which Weber analyzed) this
value system reinforced a strong policy distinctly
favorable to industrial expansion; it was not that
Japanese religion did not inculcate an ethic of asceti-
cism but rather that the obligation to work hard and to
restrain consumption (so necessary for capitalistic
development) are to be seen as linked to political
obligation to superiors which is stressed so much in
Japanese religion.All this, moreover, is to be considered
within the context of a selfless identification with the
ultimate nature of things.
Two last words: Professor Bellah has a literary style
which serves as a model for all sociologists whether they
are concerned with religion or anything else. His closing
sentences remind one somehow of A. N. Whitehead or
Reinhold Niebuhr, in that like these two authors,
Bellah has deep insights into the meaning of religion in
human life which he can express in an attractive vivid-
ness of style. To give one example, Dr. Bellah concludes
his book with the words: "If we give Japanese religion
'credit' for contributing to the miraculous rise of
modern Japan we must also give it 'blame' for contribut-
ing to the disaster which culminated in 1945. Such a
conclusion has implications for the relation of religion
and society in general. Every religion seeks to pro-
claim a truth which transcends the world, but is en-
meshed in the very world it desires to transcend. Every
religion seeks to remake the world in its own image,
but is always to some extent remade in the image of the
world. This is the tragedy of religion. It seeks to tran-
scend the human but it is human, all too human. And
yet tragedy is not the last word about religion, and
1945 is not the end of Japanese religion. As long as
religion maintains its commitments to the source of
ultimate value, which is to say as long as it remains reli-
gion, the confrontation of religion and society con-
tinues. Holding to that commitment religion turns
every human defeat into victory."
I have one suggestion. It is that when the second
edition comes out Dr. Bellah give an introductory
chapter for those of his readers who have no knowledge
of the necessary historical background of nineteenth
century Japan. American graduate students rarely
know what happened in Europe in 1492. They have
less knowledge still of the history of the Far East. It
would be a great pity if Dr. Bellah's possible readers
are discouraged from completing such an important
book simply because the first chapter presupposes some
acquaintance with the problem with which the book is
concerned.
ARNOLD S. NASH
University of North Carolina
THE COMMUNITY: AN INTRODUCTION TO A SOCIAL
SYSTEM. By Irwin T. Sanders. New York: The
Ronald Press, 1958.431 pp. $6.00.
This community approach to the study of sociology
is one of the most interestingly written in the field.
Although it draws heavily on empirical research, it is
 180 SOCIAL FORCES
not, like many current texts, merely a sociological
description of American communities. The main stress
is on orientation and general conceptual framework. As
the subtitle indicates, the theoretical framework is that
of social systems analysis.
The book is aimed at students, not technicians. Of
the three ways to study communities-formal research,
reconnaissance or self-survey, and personal observation
and individual interpretation-the author emphasizes
the last because this is the one most students are going
to use. The present volume is designed to help the
student learn how to understand the communities he is
going to live in by giving him a vocabulary and a con-
ceptual frame of reference.
Part I deals with the social traits of the community,
Part II, with the major systems at work, and Part III,
with community action. Among the social traits (really
a misnomer) dealt with are locale, people, jobs, commu-
nication, traditions and values, social layers, groups,
interaction, social change, social control, and the com-
munity as a social system. The major systems discussed
are: local government, the economy, family, religion,
morality, education, social welfare, and recreation.
Physical planning and zoning and community develop-
ment round out the topics. The contents make the book
an excellent introductory text to precede or to follow
or take the place of a conventional first course in a
sociology department. It should be particularly useful
for non-majors to whom the first sociology course is
not preparation for advanced study, but terminal. It
should also appeal to that segment of the general read-
ing public interested in civic activities.
The defects are minor. In the first chapter, for
example, after speaking of the community as a place
the author suddenly begins to talk of the community in
terms of identification; this is a brusque transition and
the reader is unprepared for it. On page 25 the date
when the urban population first outnumbered the rural
is incorrect as given. The only serious criticism, how-
ever, is that the student does not get a feeling for the
rapidity with which changes are occurring in commu-
nities today, despite the excellent chapter on change.
This defect may be inherent, as some have argued, in
the social systems approach. A good teacher should be
able to compensate for it. Because of my own personal
bias, the chapter on interaction seems inadequate; but
it is certainly interesting. I think students will enjoy
this as a text.
JESSIE BERNARD
Pennsylvania State University
CASE HISTORIES IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION. By
Murray G. Ross. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1958. 268 pp. $3.50.
The interest in community organization as a social
work process is reflected in the quantity of recently
published material focusing on this vital area. Case
Histories in Community Organization attempts to fill
the void in the available literature by presenting case
records reporting the activities of professional workers
in the community. It is a companion volume to Ross's
Community Organization: Theory and Principles and is
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obviously expected to be used to illustrate the earlier
volume.
The book is divided into four sections. Part one,
"The Theory of Community Organization," is a concise
discussion of the conceptions of community organiza-
tion. Three approaches to working with communities-
the reform orientation, planning orientation, and proc-
o ess orientation-are outlined and diagrammatically
presented. The author imposes six conditions which the
process of "community organization" must meet in
order to properly be called community organization and
which the student is expected to apply in his analysis
of the 21 case histories which follow.
Part one is concluded by a brief section discussing
three definitions of community. The first two, suggested
by Lindeman, define the community as a geographical
unit and a process operating in an area or in a group.
The third definition is that of the functional community
"which would include those groups of people in any
geographic area who share a common function or inter-
est of sufficient importance in their lives to induce
recognition among them of a common bond which
draws them together in association and organization."
Ross concludes that the definition of community
most acceptable to social work "is a process that makes
for greater capacity to function cooperatively in respect
to common problems in the community"-functional
and/or geographic.
The several definitions of community with the
author's clarification of the community organization
concept should have preceded any other theoretical
considerations. The reader finds it difficult to determine
what is meant by community and community organiza-
tion. Phrases such as "problems which the community
recognizes as its problems;" "using methods that re-
quire the community to define, to understand, and to
deal with its own problems;" "the secondary goal of
helping the community to cope successfully with those
problems about which it is concerned," demand a rather
clear-cut definition of "community" if confusion is to be
eliminated. Certainly the traditional definition of a
geographic community overshadows the other two in
the popular and even student mind. This is a problem of
definition which must eventually be resolved.
The case histories are divided into three parts: cases
dealing with (1) the community worker and the indi-
vidual, (2) the community worker and community
groups, and (3) the community worker and the com-
munity. The cases, covering a wide range of experience,
are excellent and provide ample readable and teachable
material for discussion and analysis.
RUTH C. SCHAFFER
Ypsilanti, Michigan
THE ECONOMICS OF DISCRIMINATION. By Gary S.
Becker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.
137 pp. $3.50.
This little books represents an excursion into the
field of race discrimination by a mathematical econ-
omist. It is something of a pioneering venture, and it
deserves the careful attention of soiologists because of
its methodology, its insights, and its conclusions.