KUSER, JOHN DRYDEN.Way to study birds. il*$1.25 Putnam 598.2 17-15688
A small book for beginners in bird study, meant to serve as a guide to the identification of the more common species. It is adapted to the vicinity of New York city. Part 1, Prerequisites, has chapters on: Method of study; Twelve abundant permanent residents; Note-keeping; How to use a key and learn five songs. Part 2 is devoted to the birds of summer, with chapters on: The fifteen most abundant summer residents; The fifteen next in abundance; Nests. Part 3 consists of two chapters on fall and spring bird study; Transients, and Migration data. Part 4 is devoted to winter, with chapters on Winter residents and Winter feeding. Part 5 gives supplementary data, including a bibliography. There are nine colored plates.
“Directions for keeping notes, recording migrations, and learning bird songs, a partial list of books and a note on preservation and propagation of our native birds widen the usefulness of this valuable ornithological primer.”
“Despite the ever-increasing number of books designed to teach the beginner how to study birds, it is doubtful whether, after all, the short cuts are not, in the end, long cuts. The way is made easy—and unprofitable. This is in large measure true of ‘The way to study birds.’ With its nine plates, the book is, of course, no substitute for the amply illustrated manuals by Chester Reed and others.”
“A bird book of convenient pocket size and of sufficient comprehensiveness to be of actual use.”
“Arranged especially for the students of New York city and immediate neighborhood, but serves equally well for the southern New England states.”
KYNE, PETER BERNARD.Webster—man’s man.il*$1.35 (1½c) Doubleday 17-25126
The hero of this romantic tale is a mining engineer, and the heroine, whom he first meets on a western railroad train, is the daughter of the former president of the Central American republic. The story is brim full of action, most of which takes place in the volcanic little republic, which is on the brink of a revolution.
“An extravagant yarn, lively and entertaining.”
“‘Webster—man’s man,’ by Peter B. Kyne, belongs to the familiar and ever popular type of the soldier-of-fortune novel, with all the inevitable stage properties and situations in which the late Richard Harding Davis delighted. The surprising thing about the book is that in spite of this there is a freshness and a certain spontaneous sincerity that makes one forget the triteness of its theme. ... Its people are alive, individual, and intensely appealing.” Philip Tillinghast
“A rollicking story of love and adventure which, even in its most thrilling moments, preserves the humorous, devil-may-care atmosphere that characterizes it from the outset.”
LAGERLÖF, SELMA OTTILIANA LOVISA.Queens of Kungahälla, and other sketches; tr. by C. Field.*5s T. Werner Laurie, London
“‘The queens of Kungahälla’ is a cycle of episodes, woven together in a manner highly characteristic of Miss Lagerlöf; the English translation before us supplements it with six short tales which are quite independent. ... The most complete and characteristic is ‘Saint Catherine of Siena.’ ... ‘Old Agneta’ is a mysterious dream of lost souls, tortured with frost on a Norwegian glacier, whose sufferings are mitigated by the efforts of a solitary woman. ‘The fisherman’s ring’ is woven around a description of an Adriatic storm breaking over Venice. ‘The bird’s nest’ alone among these stories is mildly humorous; it describes how a pair of wagtails built a nest and hatched their young in the hand of a hermit who had made a vow not to shift his position. ‘God’s peace,’ which is a sort of appendix to the novel of ‘Jerusalem,’ recounts a terrific incident in the life and death of Ingmar Ingmarson.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup
“An enchanting revel of fancy.”
“Kungahälla is a locality unknown to the guide-books and, we think, to the historians. ... But Miss Lagerlöf gives her fiction such an air of reality that we hesitate to say that this city is wholly fabulous. ... The English reader of ‘The queens of Kungahälla’ will find himself constantly reminded of William Morris’s late prose romances. ... This arises from a similarity in the approach of both authors to the medieval civic life which attracted each of them. ... Miss Lagerlöf has greater vigour of narrative than her English precursor; she leads us more vividly on a more intoxicating revel of fancy, but her essential attitude to the middle ages is the same. She sees the scenes in pure and brilliant colour, like the miniatures in a Book of hours. ... Mr C. Field is often adequate and sometimes excellent, although his text would bear further revision.”
LAJPAT RAYA.[2]England’s debt to India; a historical narrative of Britain’s fiscal policy in India.*$2 Huebsch 330.954
A companion volume to the author’s “Young India” which reviewed British rule in India from the political standpoint. The present discussion is from the economic point of view, and is supported by the best British testimony, official and non-official. The chapter headings indicate the scope of the work: A historical retrospect; India and the British industrial revolution; “Tribute” or “drain”; How India has helped England make her empire; The cotton industry of India; Shipbuilding, shipping, and minor occupations; Miscellaneous industrial, agricultural, and mining operations; Agriculture; Economic conditions of the people; Famines and their causes; Railways and irrigation; Education and literacy; Certain fallacies about the “prosperity of India” examined; Taxes and expenditure; Summary and conclusion.
“But, even granting all of the author’s statements and argument, passing over his unwillingness to recognize and give just appraisal to all that England has done for India, the factremains that understanding of the great issues just now at stake and of loyalty to that civilization in which the future welfare of India as well as of the rest of the world is bound ought to have led Lajpat Raya to wait for the presentation of his plea until the greater issues, comprehensive of India’s own, are settled.”
“This author’s manner is as eloquent as his matter is interesting. Readers may not agree with all his conclusions, but they will, we are sure, appreciate the wealth of information given concerning the economic conditions in India.”
LANCHESTER, FREDERIC WILLIAM.Flying-machine from an engineering standpoint. diags*$3 (9c) Van Nostrand 629.1 (Eng ed 17-13807)
This book contains the James Forrest lecture which the author delivered before the Institution of civil engineers three months before the outbreak of war. It has been reprinted in more permanent form in answer to the many requests for copies. The author says, “Since the outbreak of war, from considerations of national secrecy, very little, indeed, of a technical character has been added to the stock of public information, and thus the position existing immediately prior to the war has become a matter of more permanent interest than the author anticipated at the time his lecture was prepared.” He has also added “A discussion concerning the theory of sustentation and expenditure of power in flight,” a paper presented at a meeting of the International engineering congress in San Francisco in 1915.
“For a lengthy review see Engineering, April 6, 1917. Also reviewed in Automobile Engineer, Jan., 1917; Mechanical Engineer, Jan. 19, 1917.”
“An excellent, accurate and interesting lecture on the flying-machine for those familiar with the subject.” E. W. B.
LANE, ANNA EICHBERG KING (MRS JOHN LANE).War phases according to Maria. il*$1 (4c) Lane 17-6332
Two of these war phases are reprinted from “Maria again.” They are included here to make complete the record of Maria’s most noteworthy activities between 1914 and 1916. The subjects of the new sketches are: Zeppelin dangers; Maria’s political opinions; Maria on submarines; On the new equality; Cardboard friendship; War hens; Margarine and society; War notice. The book is cleverly illustrated by A. H. Fish.
“We do not find Maria more than moderately amusing.”
“Maria on the subject of everything under heaven from war hens to submarines is a genuine comedy character.”
“A book not to be missed in these times.”
“Mrs Lane’s gifted satirical pen might more profitably be turned to other phases of society than those connected with Maria’s personality.”
LANE, ROSE WILDER.Henry Ford’s own story.il*$1 E. O. Jones, Forest Hills, N.Y.; for sale by Baker 17-2686
“The American public, says the writer of this book, has made a hero of the big business man. But Henry Ford, she adds, is not a big business man; he is a big man in business. She tells, in this book, the very simple and very interesting story of Henry Ford’s life, ‘how a farmer boy rose to the power that goes with many millions, yet never lost touch with humanity.’ ... Her record stops shortly after the outbreak of war; it does not include the peace party. But it tells in a good deal of detail about his wage scale and other experiments with his men.”—N Y Times
“A very human book. If it were just plain fiction it could not interest one more. ... To read it is to get a new realization of what work means, what persistence will do, on what efficiency must build, and of the tremendous power in unselfish will.”
“The platitudinousness and naïveté, the well meaning but sophomoric approach to a problem that are revealed in Mr Ford’s utterances on all subjects not relating to engineering are almost incredible. Such intellectual infantilism would be impossible any grown man in any other civilized country—as would Miss Lane’s ecstatic admiration of it. But the story of Henry Ford does not end there. Against his contempt for the amenities of life and the finer cultural satisfactions may be set his hatred of poverty and wretchedness. In that balance, who can say that the admiration of Miss Lane is misplaced?”
“A most unusual piece of biography and exceedingly well written.” J. W.
“Some day, as has been said, Mr Ford will have a real biography; before that time comes there will be plenty of studies, personal, economic, sociological. Miss Lane’s account is purely popular, colorful, newsy, and it portrays the man.”
“If sympathy with one’s subject is the sine qua non of biographers this should be the perfect biography. Miss Lane’s enthusiasm for her subject colors the entire book and surrounds him with a halo of glory.” Henrietta Walters
“Written in extremely popular and simple style, it is specially adapted to the uneducated or young reader.”
LANGE, DIETRICH.Lure of the Mississippi.il*$1.25 (2½c) Lothrop 17-28332
During the period of the Civil war, Minnesota was the scene of several Indian uprisings, the Sioux seeing in the preoccupation of the white man with a war of his own, an opportunity to regain their lands. One of these outbreaks is described by Mr Lange in this story for boys. The young heroes are two southern boys who have come north with an uncle. Driven out by the Indians, they try to rejoin their parents in Vicksburg, traveling down the river with an old trapper and a friendly red man. Vicksburg is under siege and the boys find that they have exchanged one kind of danger for another. But in time they find their parents and the entire party makes a safe return journey to what is to be their permanent home on the northern prairies.
Reviewed by J: Walcott
“Yet the story is not unduly melodramatic, but abounds in good pictures of life on the great river.”
LANGENHOVE, FERNAND VAN.Growth of a legend.*$1.25 (2c) Putnam 940.91 16-25175
The “legend” of the title refers to the stories without foundation that are common in all countries in time of war. The author has examined some of these legends which have been current in Germany. He calls his book “a study based upon the German accounts of francs-tireurs and ‘atrocities’ in Belgium.” Thework has been translated by E. B. Sherlock, and is published with a preface by J. Mark Baldwin.
“Written to defend Belgium against unjust accusations, the book also gives the human background of many so-called German ‘atrocities’ which otherwise would seem inexplicable.”
“M. van Langenhove writes with restraint and painstaking care of the sociological investigator. His book is marked by its absence of invective, of excited denial. ... The book is one of the valuable contributions to the library of war documents.”
“A dispassionate work, compiled in the impartial spirit of scientific research. Rhetorical expressions of indignation are hardly to be found in its pages, though they abound in Mr Baldwin’s preface.”
LANSBURY, GEORGE.Your part in poverty.*$1 (4½c) Huebsch 331 17-26891
George Lansbury is a member of the Church of England, the Church socialist league and the Independent labor party, has been for thirty years in active political life, and has served on the London county council and the Royal commission on the poor law. He writes this “appeal to men and women of the comfortable classes,” not from the point of view of an economist or a philanthropist but from that of an “ordinary person,” to make clear to them “what Labor asks and what, in his judgment, on Christian principles, Labor ought to have.” Mr Lansbury believes that land values should be taxed, that the wages and profit system should be abolished, that we must substitute cooperation for competition, and that the workers must “join together in great industrial unions or guilds, representative of particular industries.” After an introductory chapter, the subject is dealt with under five headings: Workmen; Women and children; Business; Churches; What we must do. There is a preface by the Bishop of Winchester.
“Specifically, we are exhorted to join the more advanced section of the working class movement, the section which aims at the complete control of the great industries by the workers in each industry. ... The difficulties which would confront such a system are lightly brushed aside by the author in a spirit of simple faith.”
“There is broad charity in Mr Lansbury’s criticism of those who possess and an earnest appeal to the innate love of man for man. Even in his chapter on business, a sermon on the text, ‘business is business,’ he offers sympathy for the overwrought business man.”
“No one who wishes to understand the labor movement in England can afford to miss this book; few who read it can fail to be captivated by its charm. It is not a program; it is not a treatise. It is simply the expression of an attitude to life which is growing rapidly in importance in every section of the English working classes.” H. J. L.
“Mr Lansbury’s indictment of society, the church, and the state is confused, and his suggested remedies are very vaguely indicated. But we are impressed by the sincerity of his wondering indignation, and we feel that the book, at any rate, reflects the doubts and fears of many intelligent workmen.”
“He seldom lets his feeling get the better of him. Consequently nearly all that he says has force. ... For the sake of symmetry in the argument Mr Lansbury ought perhaps to show that the ‘liberated’ working class—to use the word ‘liberate’ in the sense in which he uses it—would represent a higher standard of probity, self-restraint and disinterestedness than is exemplified by the prosperous elements in society to-day.”
“Mr Lansbury has written a penetrating statement. But it is written in such a kindly way that one must wonder at his moderation. He knows the poor and their problems, and he knows where the trouble lies. But he does not attack those who are responsible.”
LANUX, PIERRE DE.[2]Young France and new America.*$1.25 Macmillan 327.73 17-31439
“Reflections of a Frenchman who spent the year 1917 in America. They deal with the present events and those from the near past, but their expression is first inspired by the thought of the near future, that is to say, the period that will begin when this war ends.” (Foreword) The writer sums up what the Franco-American co-operation will mean in the years to come, how the war has opened the way to a better understanding of each other and cemented loyalties. To the Frenchman who thought of the American as a millionaire pork dealer and the American who looked upon the Frenchman as a “fussy, nervous gentleman who wore a red ribbon in his buttonhole” the experiences of the past three years have been fraught with revelation.
“I think M. de Lanux writes about us with too obvious a will to be kind. What he says of America’s coming influence upon French art, literary and plastic, may be true or may be mistaken, but certainly, to my taste, it is written by too glad a hand. Other parts of his book, however, are wholly free from this taint.” P. L.
“The author’s notably keen and understanding observations and conclusions in the United States show him to be a trustworthy student of life. Without doubt, M. de Lanux’s book will receive the attention and the interest it deserves. The people of this country are ready for its message and they will welcome both its spirit and its practical suggestions.”
“Told with an amplitude of apt quotation and with a charm which makes this contribution to the literature of foreign relationships a real source of inspiration.” B. L.
LARNER, RING W.Gullible’s travels, etc. il*$1.25 (3c) Bobbs 17-5401
Perhaps the narrator in these five tales is the original Tired Business Man. His account of “Carmen” would seem to entitle him to that distinction. His second experience of opera is described in the next sketch, and in the third, from which the book takes its title, he relates experiences at Palm Beach. The two stories that follow are in like vein. First copyrighted by the Curtis publishing company.
“Amusing but excessively slangy short stories.”
“Underneath the funny narratives of narrow views and man-handled English, there is a layer of shrewd common sense that punctures the provincialism of the snug middle class and the humbug of our so-called exclusive society. ... A broadly farcical volume.”
LASKI, HAROLD J.Studies in the problem of sovereignty.*$2.50 Yale univ. press 320.1 17-8598
“The problem of sovereignty which Mr Laski discusses is whether the seat of authority in society is single or manifold. In other words, whether a sound political theory is monist or pluralist. He argues in favor of the pluralist view, and maintains that a society is a ‘person’ in reality, not merely by a legal fiction; for the law merely recognizes and regularizes a preëxistent fact. He supports this argument by an appeal to the evidence supplied by three ecclesiastical and religious movements in the nineteenth century in Great Britain—the Scottish disruption, the Oxford movement, and the Catholic revival—and by the careers of Le Maistre and Bismarck on the Continent.”—New Repub
“It is an example of painstaking and rather brilliant historical writing, and may justly be classed, both as regards the subject-matter with which it deals and its scholarly method of treatment, with the studies of Mr J. N. Figgis, and particularly his ‘From Gerson to Grotius’ and his ‘Churches in the modern state.’ ... When Dr Laski leaves the field of history and enters upon a discussion of the nature of sovereignty he is less happy, and critics who will attribute to him an imperfect understanding of the real character of sovereignty are not likely to be wanting.” J. W. Garner
“An important contribution to the literature of that brilliant school of political writers who are forging for us a new and more satisfactory theory of the nature of the state. It should be read especially in connection with Maitland’s classic introduction to Gierke’s ‘Political theories of the middle ages,’ and Figgis’s ‘Churches in the modern state.’ ... Not only does [Mr Laski’s doctrine] mean an abandonment, or at least a serious impairment of the theory of the sovereignty of the state, but it involves the revival of the eighteenth century doctrine of natural rights, now, however, attached to group-units instead of to individuals. Whether in every particular these ideas will withstand the effect of criticism, there is no doubt that they offer in some respects a much better explanation of contemporaneous political tendencies and movements than the Hegelian theory that the state is an all-inclusive metaphysical organism, which governs the practical politics of modern Germany.” W. J. Shepard
“Throughout, the style is as incisive and clear as the temper is judicial, and everywhere sympathy is combined with a rare detachment.” C. H. McIlwain
“The book is marked by a certain agreeable scholarship. This scholarship in respect to concrete historical happenings, is however, set in a philosophical frame which is most unbecoming and which must in all frankness be ascribed to the author’s very superficial knowledge of political theory and to his failure to understand or to appreciate some of the most fundamental distinctions of political science. Even if Mr Laski’s assumptions were not of this superficial character, his practical teaching would destroy itself thru its very absurdity.” N. M. B.
“Mr Laski has done his part both in making clear his own tentative ideas and in presenting the historical data upon which they are based. This book, moreover, is not to be his last word on the subject.”
“Possibly he assumes at times too great a knowledge of the facts for American readers, and writes in an unduly allusive style, but to the mind of any one who comes from Oxford and has lived in its atmosphere, so permeated with the tradition of the Oxford movement and Catholic revival, the story seems excellently and sympathetically interpreted, for Oxford, though it gives an artificial mannerism which soon dies, gives also a real inspiration, which quickens as well as lives; and Mr Laski belongs, I think, to those whom Oxford has taught to see life whole, as well as to study it in detail.” K. L.
“The London Times, with visions of conscientious objectors rampant, finds much in the book that is ‘disreputable and even dangerous,’ and one cannot forbear to suggest that the Times is more agitated about the alleged disrepute of Mr Laski’s theories than their danger. But after the indispensable ‘word of warning’ has been meted out, one cannot fail to appreciate that the truth of Mr Laski’s reasoning overtops the danger.”
“Mr Laski is an Englishman, but he bears a historic Polish name. He should study, from the point of view of that pragmatism to which he makes frequent appeal, the effects of theliberumveto in the old Polish constitution. It still has its defenders as the last word in the assertion of the moral liberty of the citizen. ... Though there is much in this volume which we consider disputable and even dangerous, there is also much that is sound and illuminating; and though his presentation of his subject is too often involved and obscure, it rarely fails to stimulate thought.”
“He has given us a scholarly and invigorating historical review of the significant events and theories which he selects as background for his discussion. He has also given timely warning to us, as citizens, of the dangers of an implicit acceptance of a certain grim Hegelianism which has swept us unprotestingly on into the vortex of a great All which is more than ourselves.’” C: Seymour
LATOURETTE, KENNETH SCOTT.Development of China.*$1.75 (3½c) Houghton 951 17-8745
“Mighty changes are taking place in China. It is undergoing a transformation whose results no man can foresee. ... It is certain, however, that the outcome will profoundly affect the entire world. ... If Americans are not to blunder, if they are to make to the new China the unselfish contributions of which they are capable, if they are not to stumble into unnecessary conflict with Japan, if they are to share to the utmost in the trade and the industrial development of the new China, they must know her and must know her better than they do now.” (Introd.) The author, formerly of the College of Yale in China, has written this book for college students and for the general public. His aim has been to present in the light of modern scholarship a sketch of the essential facts of Chinese history and development and of the historical setting for its present-day problems.
“The characteristic feature of this book is successful condensation. ... The book is well written, well printed, and should prove very valuable for the purpose for which it is intended. It brings together within brief compass a variety of essential information which will greatly facilitate the work of classes in oriental history and contemporary politics. In producing this work Professor Latourette has rendered a distinct service both to student and to teacher.” S. K. Hornbeck
“Bibliography (7p.) with useful descriptive notes.”
“Will serve as a valuable textbook to the student of Chinese history. It should meet with even greater favor from that class of general readers who, without the drudgery of technicality and details, desire an unconventional introduction to the civilization of the Far East.”
“Perhaps a dozen brief histories of China are available in English. Some of them are hastily written and untrustworthy. Some are prejudiced. Some are overloaded with dynastic details. ... There is, therefore, a place forMr Latourette’s ‘Development of China,’ which is carefully written, fair, and free from excessive technicalities.” F: A. Ogg
“Mr Latourette is the first writer of a serious work who has accurately set forth the character of the late Yuan Shi Kai. He has furnished also a readable statement of the progress of events since 1894. ... Those interested at all in the Far East will find the volume worth reading and rereading.”
“It furnishes a splendid background to just such a study as Professor Hornbeck’s. While lacking the vitality and the temperamental felicity of such life-long writers on China and her history as Giles, for instance, and Little and Martin, Mr Latourette does nevertheless cover the ground that these more rugged writers have covered before him; and he covers it with a precision and a scholarship that perfectly adapt his book to the college classrooms for which he has designed it. ... He further adds to the value of the book as a basis for instruction by a voluminous index and an extremely serviceable and well-chosen bibliography.”
“An introductory sketch like Mr Latourette’s, notable for the scholarly absence of inflation of facts, for its sense of proportion, and for the understanding it gives of the larger features of China’s development and of the historical setting of present-day problems, meets a real need.”
“He is fair to the Japanese, fair to the British about the so-called opium war, fair to the missionaries and entirely appreciative of all that is best in China’s glorious past. By far the best part of his book is that which deals with present-day problems.” I. C. Hannah
LAUCK, WILLIAM JETT, and SYDENSTRICKER, EDGAR.Conditions of labor in American industries.*$1.75 Funk 331.8 17-13561
“The present volume is designed to meet a practical need for a compact collection of the results of the large number of investigations and studies of conditions under which the American wage-earner and his family work and live. It is presented merely as a summarization of the principal and fundamental facts that have been ascertained during the past decade and a half; it is not intended to be a critical discussion of those facts, or to be an argument in favor of or against any partizan conclusion, or any remedial program.” (Preface) These summaries are presented in nine chapters; The labor force; Wages and earnings; Loss in working time; Conditions causing irregular employment; Working conditions; The wage-earner’s family; Living conditions; The wage-earner’s health; The adequacy of wages and earnings. Mr Lauck is author with J. W. Jenks of a standard work on immigration. Mr Sydenstricker wrote one of the reports for the Commission on industrial relations.
“The statistical data presented—most of which was gathered for the United States Commission on industrial relations—are quite extensive. ... There is very little new material in the book. Its purpose, on the contrary, was to make easily available existing material, and this the authors have done in a painstaking manner. Particularly valuable are the discussions of unemployment, its causes and effects: family income; and the health of the worker. The chapter on working conditions is less satisfactory. It is unfortunate that so little attention is paid to unionism and collective bargaining. Perhaps the chief weakness of the book is the tendency to dogmatize from insufficient data.” J: A. Fitch
“The book is intelligently planned, is designed to answer those questions which so frequently arise in the mind of the legislator, the teacher, the general reader, and the newspaper editor. ... While replete with statistics, it is interesting throughout. It deserves careful study and a wide circle of readers.” J. T. Young
“A valuable reference book for educators, social workers, and all in any way engaged in handling employment problems.”
Reviewed by Nathan Fine
“No reflective business man, no thoughtful workingman, no social worker, no trade unionist, no student of industrial problems, can study the situation here revealed without realizing how fundamental to our national life these facts must be, and how thoroughly they deserve consideration.”
“To some extent the ‘American labor year book,’ published under the editorship of the present reviewer, attempted to accomplish the same purpose. The present volume is more inclusive. As a reference volume on present-day industrial conditions the book should prove valuable to those who have no opportunity to consult original sources.” Alexander Trachtenberg
“The data are largely those relating to conditions between 1900 and 1914 or 1915, since which time many changes have taken place. These, however, are noted, and such facts as are obtainable concerning them are reviewed. The authors appear to have succeeded remarkably well in keeping up with a constantly and rapidly-moving procession of industrial events.”
“The book is devoted, in the main, to an examination of the income of the American wage-earner and a consideration of its sufficiency. The chapters that deal with that subject are worth reading. One may not always agree with the conclusions—based as they are on statistics that are anywhere from four to sixteen years old and some of them questionable too—but the discussions are illuminating and the figures are the only ones we have. ... The book is full of little errors of varying degrees of importance, from misspelled names to misstatements of fact. Dates get mixed, words are omitted, pages at one point are incorrectly inserted. These are minor matters. But there are other errors that are more serious.” J: A. Fitch
LAUGHLIN, CLARA ELIZABETH.Heart of Her Highness. il*$1.50 (2c) Putnam 17-25586
A romance of Flanders in the fifteenth century. The heroine is Mary of Burgundy, orphaned daughter of Charles the Bold. With her young step-mother as her only sympathetic counselor, Mary is beset with many troubles. In her childhood she had been betrothed to the young son of the emperor of Germany, but the proposed alliance had all but been forgotten, and Louis of France wished to force a marriage with his son, while her own people urged a marriage equally distasteful. Mary herself has given her heart to an unknown youth, and while it looks for a time as tho love must be sacrificed to her country’s needs, the two claims are in the end discovered to be identical.
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
“Begins like a novel and ends like a fairy tale. There is more than one vivid passage; and if the dialogue is too conventional to be convincing, it is suggestive of those firelight stories that were always too good to be true.”
“Miss Laughlin is to be commended for telling her story in present-day English and avoidingthe practice of some historical romancers of attempting to reproduce archaic forms of speech.”
LAUGHLIN, JAMES LAURENCE.Latter-day problems.*$1.50 (2c) Scribner 330.4 17-3490
The three last chapters of the first edition, dealing with money and banking, have been omitted from this revised edition. In their place the author has added five chapters on: Women and wealth; Monopoly of labor; Capitalism and social discontent; Business and democracy; Economic liberty. The omitted chapters may be included later in a volume dealing with monetary problems.
“The tone of Prof. Laughlin’s dismissal of the case for the working class makes a liberal suspect him. ... The best thing to be said for ‘Latter-day problems’ is that it makes a very creditable attempt to solve 20th century problems with 18th century formulæ.”
LAVIS, FRED.Railway estimates, design, quantities and costs. il*$5 McGraw 625 17-14018
“The author, a special lecturer on railway engineering at Yale university, presents in one volume all that is necessary in estimating the probable cost of a proposed railway and the design of general features, together with a complete analysis of details not hitherto available in any single publication.” (Pittsburgh) “The book is more than a development of chapter 8 of the author’s ‘Railway location, surveys and estimates.’ It is an expansion of that chapter and a setting forth of the timely subject matter in a manner that carries weight and impresses the reader with the author’s broad and practical knowledge of the subject.” (Engin News-Rec)
“It is a pleasure to note that the author, in handling chapters 3 to 11 inclusive—the principal classified cost elements—has, as is his custom, confined himself to the practical illustrative essentials and avoided wordy expansions of irrelevant features. One would have been glad to find in the text three or four chapters instead of three or four pages on the subject of electrical operation and electrification of steam roads.” M. P. Paret
LAY, WILFRID.Man’s unconscious conflict; a popular exposition of psychoanalysis.*$1.50 (2c) Dodd 130 17-9481
The author offers an interpretation of Freud which will be more acceptable to American readers than many that have preceded it. He has adopted a nomenclature that is more in accordance with our common usage and modes of thought, thus eliminating much of the seeming offensiveness of the Freudian theories. The treatment is popular. His purpose is “to show the unconscious operating in every act of our lives, not merely in the actions ordinarily known as unconscious or automatic, but in that part of our activity to which we attribute the most vivid consciousness.” One important chapter, on a phase little touched on heretofore, deals with the application of psychoanalysis to education. The author suggests that most if not all the faults of the present system of instruction in schools is due to ignorance of the function of the unconscious.
“Fascinating and very practical book.” L. M. Field
“Dr Lay, for all the qualities of his argument that look like prepossessions, lays out this difficult lore with a clarity, a charm and a high moral force, that point his book with every power to instruct and improve. No science is so immediately devoted to human service as psychology, no person with his own or society’s welfare at heart can afford to neglect it, and few writers have laid bare its main principles with happier effect than Dr Lay.” B. K.
“A coherent and systematic account, in simple terms, of the fundamental principles and conceptions that are implied in the discoveries and hypotheses of Freud and his school. This is in itself no small achievement. ... It is a pity that Dr Lay still defers so much to the rather inconclusive and therapeutically as well as theoretically useless generalization of sex; that he underestimates, if he at all considers, the importance of the ‘self-regarding instinct’; and that he offers hasty prescriptions to teachers.”
“It gives one a fair idea, in an easy and entertaining style, of what it is all about—and incidentally enables one to measure the depths of psychoanalytic credulity.”
“Valuable book, which should be in the hands of all parents and educators.”
LAZARILLO DE TORMES.Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and his fortunes and adversities.*$1.50 (4c) Kennerley 17-12486
This version of the first picaresque romance is “done out of the Castilian from R. Foulché-Delbosc’s restitution of the editio princeps, by Louis How.” (Sub-title) “The “Life” was probably in existence in some form or other, perhaps for some time, before 1554, the date from which our earliest editions reach us. But the numerous English editions of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early nineteenth centuries are not widely current in these days, and they are all filtered through French translations.” (Dial) There is no plot. Lazarillo’s experiences with his many masters form a satire on society in sixteenth century Spain. After a prologue, the narrative proper is divided into seven treatises or chapters. “The first deals with the early life of Lazarillo and his peregrinations as guide of a blind beggar. In the next four he appears as the servant of a priest, an impoverished petty noble, a friar and a pardoner. In the sixth and seventh he serves a painter of tambourines, a chaplain and a constable, and finally becomes a town crier of Toledo, ... and settles down as the complacent husband of a maidservant of the archpriest of San Salvador parish. Most of the action passes in Toledo or in its immediate neighborhood.” (Introd.) The historical introduction of forty-four pages, and the notes, are by Charles Philip Wagner.
“Mr How has attempted a literal version; he goes so far as frequently to sacrifice smooth English in his effort to keep the construction of the original. The result is occasionally a racy bit of phrasing, but too often the reader misses the craftsmanship of the anonymous author. The notes, by Mr Charles P. Wagner, will be of interest to serious students of Spanish. Some of the latter will doubtless wish to quarrel with Mr How over a few of his renderings.”
“Should serve greatly to widen the circle of readers of the tale. We think such who come to it afresh will enjoy the series of anecdotes through which Lazarillo passes with the perfect effrontery of the mediæval rogue.”
LEACOCK, STEPHEN BUTLER.[2]Frenzied fiction.*$1.25 (2c) Lane 827 18-768
To “Nonsense novels,” “Further foolishness” and other humorous works, Mr Leacock now adds a work of “Frenzied fiction.” It opens with the author’s “revelations as a spy,” quite as solemnly ponderous and neither more norless revelatory than many of the supposedly authentic confessions. Other pieces in the book are: Father Knickerbocker—a fantasy; The prophet in our midst; Personal adventures in the spirit world; The cave man as he is; The new education; Back from the land.
“The book is the work of a warmhearted and joyous spirit, a friendly, gentle soul that pokes good natured fun at our ridiculousness, our pretensions. He makes you like him and he makes you laugh. It is much.”
“This is Leacock at his best, and this best is better than others of his recent books. The fun is sly and penetrating; the burlesque quality is sustained; the writing is that of a humorist, not that of a mere jokesmith.”
LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE.Enforced peace; proceedings of the first annual national assemblage. 50c (1c) League to enforce peace 172.4 17-697
A volume containing the proceedings of the first annual national assemblage of the League to enforce peace, held in Washington, May 26-27, 1916. An introductory chapter is devoted to the organization of the League. Its principles and proposals are given in an appendix. Among the papers reprinted are: The League to enforce peace and the soul of the United States, by Edward A. Filene; The League program, preparedness, and ultimate reduction of armaments, by Hamilton Holt; Constitutionality of the proposals, by William H. Taft; The Monroe doctrine, by George Grafton Wilson; The European nations and the League program, by John Bates Clark; American labor and a constructive settlement of the war, by Samuel Gompers; American agriculture and the League to enforce peace, by Carl Vrooman.