Book Reviews

So many books are sent to this department of EDUCATION that it is impossible to review them all. Naturally we feel under obligation to give preference to the books of those publishing houses which more or less frequently use our advertising pages. Outside of the limitations thus set, we shall usually be able and glad to mention by title, authors, publisher and price, such books as are sent to us for this purpose. More elaborate notices will necessarily be conditional upon our convenience and the character of the books themselves.

GAMES AND DANCES. By William A. Stecher. Third edition, illustrated, 356 pages, 7 by 9 inches. Published by John J. McVey, Philadelphia, Pa. Price $2.75.

Two large editions of this book have been sold, which speaks louder for the usefulness of "Games and Dances" than does an extended review. The new edition has 102 more pages than the preceding issue. The bulk of the new material consists of: (1) a complete pageant entitled "The Revival of the Play Spirit in America," with a full description of the action, the properties, the costumes and the dances; (2) an outline of a "Minimum Physical Training Course," with a description of the games, the athletics, and the dances; (3) an outline of usable material under the heading, "Competitive Mass Athletics," and (4) a chapter entitled "Suggestions to Teachers on the Coaching of Track and Field Athletics." The “Efficiency Tests" of the former editions have been brought up to date and several new tests added based upon weight and age.

PERSONALITY CULTURE BY COLLEGE FACULTIES. David E. Berg. Institute for Public Service, New York City, cloth 128 pp. Price $1.50.

This book is based on a study of 72 university instructors at work with 100 classes in 25 subjects. The author spent a summer session in visiting the classes, and has given a description of each teacher as seen from the viewpoint of the students. During the first two days his visits to eight instructors revealed examples of personalities ranging from the "zenith to the nadir" in teaching ability, "the poor teaching power being due to correctable faults of personality." With each group of personality portraits, from the "lower levels" in personality to the "personalities plus," is given the outstanding personality elements that determine the classification. Each picture is so fully described as to show clearly those qualities of personality that should be cultivated and those avoided.

GROVE'S DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. American Supplement. By Waldo Selden Pratt, editor, and Charles N. Boyd, assistant editor. The sixth volume of the complete work. The Macmillan Company. Price $6.00.

This is a volume of exceptional interest to American music lovers. It is comprehensive of brief or more extended biographical notices of the lives and works of those musicians and musical critics who have attained fame, together with adequate notices of musical organizations and general interests. It gives America her true place in the development and practice of music. The portraits are an attractive feature.

CAMBRIDGE ESSAYS ON ADULT EDUCATION. Edited by R. St. John Parry, Vice-Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. The Cambridge University Press, London.

Adult education has made splendid progress in America,—partly under the inspiration and supervision of the Universities, and also through the agency of Chautauqua Institutes, Summer Schools, etc. The work as conceived and supervised by the great English Universities is the especial field covered in this volume. There are chapters on the purpose and meaning of adult education, its history and organization, democracy and adult education, labor and adult education, the education of women, University extension movements, the tutorial class movement, and "A Student's Experience." These chapters are interestingly presented with British thoroughness, and open the reader's mind to the vast possibilities of a great human movement which is as yet but in its infancy.

DRAWING DESIGN AND CRAFT WORK, FOR TEACHERS, STU. DENTS, ETC. By Frederick J. Glass, National Silver and Bronze Medalist and King's Prizeman, Headmaster Londonderry Art School, etc. London, B. T. Batsford, Ltd.; New York, E. P. Dutton & Company. Price $6 net.

A book by a master and with a mission. It is based upon some fourteen years of experience as teacher, and in teacher-training work. It is sound in theory, clear in diction, and suggests clearly the principles which teachers of these subjects should follow in building up their own schemes. Teachers and students and practical workers in the plastic and graphic arts will find this book very inspiring and practically useful. The price of the volume is based upon the extensive, expensive, and elaborate plates which it contains, to the number of 114, some of them in colors.

ENGLISH IN BUSINESS. By Dudley Miles, Ph. D., Chairman of the Department of English, The Evander Childs High School, New York City, and Instructor in Business English, New York Chapter, American Institute of Banking. The Ronald Press, New York. Price $2.00.

This is a very full treatment, but so well classified that the busy student or business man or employee can get readily at the things he particularly needs for his special duties. We can commend the book unreservedly, both as a volume for private use and as a classroom text book. Teachers in Commercial Colleges will find it comprehensive and clear, and while covering the entire subject in a thorough manner, it is so arranged as to enable the student to select the essentials, if time for this subject is limited.

PAN-AMERICANISM, ITS BEGINNINGS. By Joseph Byrne Lockey. The Macmillan Company. Price $5.00.

A most timely and important volume, being a comprehensive study of the meaning of the term “Pan-Americanism,” and showing the necessity and wisdom of establishing "permanent relations of confidence, respect, friendship, and equality," with no coercion, secret understandings, or conquest between the different countries of North and South America. The inestimable advantages to all concerned are clearly and eloquently shown. The argument is based upon the most complete and impartial data, gathered from historic documents, speeches of statesmen, statistics of commerce, reports of explorers and travelers, etc. In short, the book is a marvel of scholarly investigation, digestion of records and testimony, and sagacious and statesmanlike conclusions. It will prove a sort of "handbook" of peace and goodwill between the sometimes conflicting and apparently antagonistic "interests" involved in the proximity of the various rapidly developing states in this great Western world.

SWISS FAIRY TALES. By William Elliott Griffis. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Illustrated in color. 260 pages.

Teachers and parents will welcome this addition to our Fairy and Folk Lore stories. We have heard much about the Alps, the avalanches, and the Swiss clocks and watches; there is no country that is more replete with folk-lore and tales of imagination and adventure than this picturesque and romantic land. This beautiful book will prove it to any one, especially the children. It should be added to your home or school library, dear readers, especially if you are dealing with the delightful experiences and problems of developing child-life.

SCOUTMASTERSHIP. A Handbook for Scoutmasters on the Theory of Scout Training. By Sir Robert Baden-Powell. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price $1.50.

To name this book and its author is almost sufficient as a review. Those who are called to this important, delicate, and yet delightful service of scoutmastership,-in fact, those who are fortunate enough to come in any way into contact with developing youth, will find here the experience and methods of a master-workman fully and sympathetically set forth. He says: "Conditions may differ, temperaments are not all alike, national characteristics may vary, but for all that, I find that, go where you will, the boy is the same animal, bless him." To this may all the world say "Amen."

A CENTRAL AMERICAN JOURNEY. By Roger W. Babson. (The first of the Interamerican Geographical Readers.) Cloth, illustrated, ix-219 pages. World Book Company. Price $1.20.

This book is a geographical reader dealing with a new field, being a children's book based on the big adventure of big business in our export trade. While the interest of the book lies primarily in the things the children see and hear and do, rather than in any definite plot, there is plenty of incident, as they visit a silver mine, cocoa, coffee, and banana plantations, a balsam forest, and Indian villages; they travel in unfrequented regions and experience two earthquakes. The tendency of the book is to give American children not only an interest in this picturesque region, but the right view of its people, and impress upon them the practical advantages of a knowledge of Spanish.

Revised edition.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. By Benjamin Bradley, Dean of Morehouse College. The Macmillan Co.

This is a very interesting ethnological study and many a reader will be astonished to find how many colored men and women have attained eminence in the professions, in business, in literature, and the arts. Surely the Negro should be accepted upon his own merits. He is here and he has borne a man's share of the work of the modern world. The author says that according to the census of 1910, "a total of 71.2 per cent was engaged in such work as represents the very foundation of American industry. There are negro inventors, doctors, ministers, scientists, philanthropists, authors, soldiers and statesmen. The day is past for claiming any right to despise a man for the color of his skin.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN EVERYDAY ENGLISH. By Emma Miller Bolenius. The American Book Company.

The author of this volume is well known to the readers of EDUCATION, having several times contributed to our pages. Her book has, she says, three main objects, viz., to make correct language-habits automatic; to develop the child's thinking power and give him richer backgrounds of life; and to make him enjoy his work in language by weaving it around the doing of real things. Special features are sixty projects for class work, socialized recitation suggestions, training in thoughtgetting and organization, supervised class work, small units of assignment, timely exercises, illustrative models, unique use of pictures, community interests, and Americanism throughout. The book will be exceedingly suggestive and helpful to the thoughtful teacher and to the fortunate pupil.

BUSINESS ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. By J. Anton DeHaas, M. A., Ph. D. The Gregg Publishing Company. Price $1.60

This is a text for high school use. It is a practical book, confining itself to essentials and stating these clearly and comprehensively for short courses in business colleges and schools. At the close of each chapter there are references, test questions and questions for further study. We commend this book for what it omits as well as for its plan and for what it contains. It is attractively printed and bound. There are several tables, cuts and other illustrations.

By the same Publishers we have MODERN JUNIOR MATHEMATICS, Book Three. By Marie Gugle, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Columbus, Ohio. Price $1.00.

This carefully edited volume strives everywhere to make its subject intelligible and attractive to the student who is so situated that he cannot go deeply into a long course of mathematical study. These text books of this company are doing a great service to the business world, making real study and practical mastery of the essentials of business feasible for the great host of students who can never hope to attain a college education. The elements of arithmetic, geometry, algebra and trigonometry are taught as one subject and made interesting and usable. An admirable text for Junior High School courses.