Book Review: Personality and Culture in Eastern European Politics, Slavic Civilization through the Ages

Date01 March 1950
DOI10.1177/002070205000500119
Published date01 March 1950
Subject MatterBook Review
Book
Reviews
subject
of
the
book.
What
is
ultimately.
required
is
.a
careful analysis
of
Washington's education
policy
in
view
of
the -present and
future
problems
confronting
the
American
Negro.
To
assist
in
making
such
an
analysis
the
present
biography contributes
important
and
indeed
indispensable
information
on
the
man,
his
life
work, and
his
influence
upon
contemporary
policies.
University
of
Toronto,
August
1949.
G.
Gordon
Brown
PERSONALITY
AND
CULTURE
IN EASTERN
EUROPEAN
POLITICS.
By
Dinko
Tomasic.
1948.
(New
York:
George
W.
Stewart.
Toronto:
George
J.
McLeod.
249pp.
$3.75,
members
$3.00.)
SLAVIC
CIVILIZATION
THROUGH
THE AGES. By
Samuel
Hazzard
Cross.
1948.
(Cambridge,
Mass.:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S. J.
Reginald
Saunders. x,
195pp.
$4.25,
members
$3.40.)
Tomasic's
research
in
the
field of
personality,
culture,
and
power
relationships
is
an outstanding
contribution
to
this
field
which
is
practically
unknown
to
Anglo-Saxon
scholarship.
It
is
a
delight
to
read and
a
luxury
to
review
this
book since
in its
wider implications
it
opens
up
vistas not
yet
scanned
too
well
in
sociology,
political
sociology,
and
anthropology.
Yet,
the
volume
is
not
free from
several
definite
limitations.
The
title
is
somewhat
misleading.
The
field
covered
certainly
does
not
apply
to
the
region
known
as
"Eastern
Europe,"
but
only
to
the Balkans
(in
spite
of
occasional
references
to
such
countries
as Poland).
The
book
is
poorly
organized.
It
starts
by
devoting
a
whole
chapter
to
"The
Power
Seeker
in
Dinaric
Society,"
and
then
switches
its
spotlight
on
"Power-Seeking
and Political
Instability
in
Eastern
Europe."
Chapter
IV
is
devoted
to
'Tower
Indifference
in Zadruga
Society,"
and, then
again,
we
are presented with
two
chapters
covering
generalizations,
"Political
Ideologies
and
the Structure
of
Eastern
European
Society"
and
'Power
and
Social
Structure
in Eastern
Europe." The
Bibliography
is
very
good,
especially
on
the
European publications,
and,
for
some
reason,
extremely
poor
on
the
studies in
English
covering
this
field.
But
in
spite
of
these
minor
deficiencies,
this
is
a
brilliant
and
highly
impressive
contribution
to
the
political
sociology
of
the
Balkan
society.
Since
there
is
hardly
any
literature
in
English
on
the broad,
as
well
as
specific,
trends
of
Slavic
history,
the
second
volume
under
review
has
the
distinction
of
being probably
the
first
publication
in
English
written
by
a
single
author
on
this
topic.
For
that
reason,
we
can
also
excuse
its
two
glaring
weaknesses:
the
total
absence
of
any
footnotes, as
well
as of
any
bibliography.
Especially
well
done
are
the
sections
evaluating
the
great
cultural
contributions
of
the
Germans
to
their
Slavic
neighbours and
those emphasizing
that
the
real
contribution
of
the
Slavic
people
to
world
civilization
is
the
result
of
achievement
81

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