Sociology of Leisure by Joffre Dumazedier, The Sociology of Leisure by Stanley Parker (review)

Books 245 are in agreement with the great importance she attaches to family environment and formal education as regards a child’s creative impulses.Also we supporther objections to the obsolete attitude towards women according to which ‘a woman was conceived to give total satisfaction to her users’. In addition to the creative instinct of childbirth, women could become the guardians of the quality of life and apply their aptitude of imagination to resolving contemporary dilemmas that concern it. Whether you are a man or a woman, an artist or a decisionmaking executive,this book will stimulate your imagination and help you to confront the world with a creative spirit. The Pleasures of Deception. Norman Moss. Chatto & Windus, London, 1977.208 pp. €4.95. Reviewed by John Seott Willson* Deception has been practised since time immemorial; even Genesiscontains the account of Jacob impersonating his brother Esau. In this book Mosshas compiled a fascinating anthology of someof the most intriguing hoaxes that have been perpetrated in comparatively recent times. The accounts are limited to those occasions in which hoaxers have deceived victimsby building up illusionsand falseimpressions in their minds. Deceptions simply involving forgery or the manufacture of fake artworks are not included, as the author feels that these are mere technical exercises rather than examples of applied psychology. The majority of the hoaxes described took place in this century, the only major exception beingWilliam Ireland’sproduction in 1793 of works supposedly by Shakespeare. The book recounts an amazing variety of forms of deception and shows that the reasons behind hoaxing are equally numerous. Thedescriptions of the practicaljokes and confidence tricks of Professor R. V. Jones, Horace de Vere Cole and Alan Abel are very entertaining. They show that hoaxing can be harmless as well as humorous, and a few readers, particularly university students, may well be inspired to attempt to repeat some of the events. Those who do should note the author’s comment that ajokeplayed onpersons whose statusorcharacter makes them particularly vulnerable is just a form of bullying, which has no merit whatsoever. Hoaxes that involve abuses of confidence, generosity or kindness are equally objectionable. The other chapters describe impostors who desired status or power and swindlers and con men who only sought financial gain. The book ends on a more sobering theme by considering the methods and morality of military deception, such as leaking false information, double-cross espionage and black propaganda . Many of the episodeshave beenrecounted in other books and the author has drawn on these as well as on newspaper files, letters and personal contacts to ensure that names, dates, places and other details are substantiated (Moss suggests that some published accounts of hoaxes may have been hoaxes themselves). The bibliography of thesesourcesisinteresting in itselfand it will be of great value to those readers who wish to delve further into these fascinating stories. Sociologyof Leisure. Joffre Dumazedier. Trans. from French by Marea McKenzie. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974. 231 pp. Dfl. 26.00; $9.75. The Sociologyof Leisure. Stanley Parker. Allen & Unwin, London, 1976. 157 pp. €5.50. Reviewed by Otto Kheberg ** There is continuing discussion on the place of leisure in society, and a lively argument as to whether the time that we devote to leisure is in the process of expanding. In their book on The Year 2000 (New York: Macmillan, 1967), Kahn and Wiener predict that in the future men and women will have less work to do, shorter hours and longer vacations; they will also livelonger and retire at an earlier age-all of whichwill presumably lead to more freetime in whichto enjoy greater leisure.Kenneth Galbraith,on the other hand, in The New Industrial State (London: Penguin, *The Manchester Grammar School, Old Hall Lane, Manchester MI3 OXT, England. **43bis, Blvd. du Chateau, 92200 Neuilly sur Seine, France. 1967)believesthat asincomerises,people willspend more timeat work, and that there isno basisfor the expectation of a future era of expanded leisure. Similarly, the Hungarian sociologist Szalai and his colleagues argue in The Use o f Time (The Hague: Mouton, 1973) that all the new technological advances calculated to reduce women’s household duties are accompanied by greater desire for more consumer goods rather than for more leisure...