Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences International Social Science Review

Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences
Review
Author(s): Corinna Lambeth
Review by: Corinna Lambeth
Source: International Social Science Review, Vol. 65, No. 4 (AUTUMN 1990), pp. 187-188
Published by: Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41881959
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INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW 187
D. L. Kirkpatrick, editor, Reference Guide to American Literature, second

edition, St. James Press, 233 East Ontario Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611: 1990,
pp. xviii 4- 816, no price indicated.
James Vinson, editor, and D. L. Kirkpatrick, associate editor, St. James Refer-
ence Guide to English Literature, St. James Press, 233 East Ontario Street,
Chicago, Illinois 60611: 1988, no price indicated. Eight volumes:
Volume 1, The Beginnings and the Renaissance, pp. vii + 408.
Volume 2, The Restoration and 18th Century, pp. v + 351.
Volume 3, The Romantic and Victorian Periods, pp. vii + 355.
Volume 4, The Novel to 1900, pp. vi + 313.
Volume 5, 20th Century Poetry, pp. viii + 526.
Volume 6, 20th Century Fiction, pp. viii + 781.
Volume 7, 20th Century Drama, pp. viii + 316.
Volume 8, Commonwealth Literature, pp. vi + 281.
The social aspects of literature are so important and fascinating that there is a
fairly new subfield known as the sociology of literature. The youth of this disci-
pline is suggested by the fact that there are only a few, very few, volumes dealing
with this subject, for instance: Laurenson and Swingewood's Sociology of Litera-
ture, Escarpit's Sociology of Literature, Stableford's The Sociology of Science
Fiction, and only a few more.
Unfortunately, even modern social science has not reached the dizzy heights,
vast breadth, and bottomless depths of William Shakespeare's Hamlet or Macbeth,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Poems on Slavery, or Alan Stewart Paton's Cry,
The Beloved Country, and so forth and so on.
Consider the following profound insights into society:
Samuel Johnson: "There are people whom one should like very well to drop,
but would not wish to be dropped by" (in Boswell' s Ufe of Samuel Johnson,
March 26, 1781).
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his
real character, and reveals it in hiding" ("Worship," The Conduct of Life, 1860).
Oscar Wilde: "To get into the best society nowadays, one has either to feed
people, amuse people, or shock people" (A Woman of No Importance, 1893).
Herbert George Wells: "The path of social advancement is, and must be, strewn
with broken friendships" ( Kipps , 1905).
F. Scott Fitzgerald: "If all your clothes are worn to the same state, it means you
go out too much" ("Notebooks," The Crack-Up, 1945).
And so forth!
The first edition of the Reference Guide to American Literature was so success-
ful that a new edition was necessary, an edition that has the advantages of the old
one, plus new valuable features.
After the list of the numerous expert contributors, comes the much longer
alphabetized list of American writers, from Henry Adams to Louis Zukofsky. A
two-page list of the works discussed in detail then follows.
A long introduction to "American Literature to 1900," by Lewis Leary, guides
the reader perfectly. Equally successful and useful is "American Literature Since
1900," by Warren French, who discusses the age of innocence, 1900-1919; the
triumph of modernism, 1919-1929; alienation vindicated- Depression and World
War, 1929-1945; the harvest of modernism, 1946-1957; modernist decadence,
188 AUTUMN 1990, VOLUME 65, NUMBER 4
1957-1979; and minimalism, since 1980.

The typical entry begins with a brief biographical sketch, continues with a
complete list of publications, and closes with a longer critical essay that reveals the
author-society bond and the social and psychological consequences critically
revealed in literature.
Fortunately, the St. James Reference Guide to English Literature follows the
same format. In other words, for each author, we find a brief biography, a list of
publications, and a critical essay. Unavoidably, the second section depends on the
degree to which an author is prolific, while the typical first and third parts are now
shorter, since this magnificent series, despite its eight volumes, is too short for
long biographies, the number of subjects being incredibly vast.
It is impossible to summarize this masterpiece of reference. Let me only men-
tion, for the second time (how timely and how important!), South Africa's Alan
Paton. Born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, on January 11, 1903, he was educated at
Maritzburg College, University of Natal. Principal of Diepkloof Reformatory in
Johannesburg since 1935, he left this position in 1948, when he became a full-time
writer. Founder and president of the Liberal Party of South Africa, 1958-1968, he
thus became a major leader in both literature and politics. His attitude toward
apartheid resulted in a Freedom House Award for Paton in 1960. What would that
giant do, say, or write today, if he were still alive?
Corinna Lambeth
Literature Programs
Cambridge University
Cambridge
England
Brian Fagan, New Treasures of the Past, New York: Barron's Educational
Series, 1987, pp. 208, $26.95.
New Treasures of the Past by Brian Fagan is a popularized account of some ot the
scientific advances that archeology has made during the past 25 years. The mod-
ern science of archeology, one that employs increasingly sophisticated analytical
and research techniques, emerged from a background of antiquarianism, the
unsophisticated and unscientific collection of treasures and art objects during the
18th and 19th centuries. These disciplinary roots were fired by the romanticism
and adventure inspired by the colonial era, and the birth of the Western world's
knowledge of distant and exotic cultures and their associated antiquities.
New Treasures of the Past reviews some of these new and innovative methods
and techniques to educate the lay reader about the advances that have transformed
the antiquarian archeology of the past into a modern scientific discipline founded
upon sophisticated decipherment of facts.
The romanticism, speculation, and adventure associated with those dilletanti of
yesterday who involved themselves in the eccentric pastime of collecting objets
d'art and treasures of antiquity have been transformed into an exact science. No
longer is archeology the pastime of the idle rich, or affluent people interested in
the collection of rare and exotic antiquities. Brian Fagan illustrates this transfor-
mation by reviewing discoveries, insights, and advances that scientific archeology
has methodically generated during the past 25 years. No longer does the armchair

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Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences

D. L. Kirkpatrick, editor, Reference Guide to American Literature, second

1957-1979; and minimalism, since 1980.

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