Camp William James by Jack J. Preiss (review)

Books 249 take a plunge into whatever looks interesting, and, only after a discovery is made, should previous work be consulted. With the hindsight provided by the detailed map of acoustic science provided by recent research, readers will find it very clear that the earlier workers had no choice but to take a plunge haphazardly, the blind being led by those who could only see 'as in a glass darkly'. For example, for a long time it was thought that the speed of sound depended upon the initial intensity of the sound, a loud bang travelling faster than a whisper, and the actual speed of sound was given widely various values (even Newton was more than 20 per cent wrong). It was not until 1738 that the correct value of 332 mls in air at O°C at sea level was finally obtained. The disadvantage of the historical method is that the steps in the development of concepts are widely scattered. A weakness of this book is that the Index is very inadequate, so that it is difficult to find the pertinent references to a given subject. For example, the development of the musical scale is one of the most complicated and fascinating aspects of acoustics, but the Index gives only seven references. It is really not possible to follow, in this book, the various steps that led from the scale of Pythagoras to the equal temperament tuning of the piano. Although many pages are devoted to the contributions of Mersenne, it is not mentioned that it was he who finally (in 1636) put the equal temperament scale on a scientific basis by showing that the ratio of vibrations of a tone to that of a tone one semitone lower is 1.05946: 1, that is, the twelfth root of 2. However, a reviewer must be careful not to criticise an author for not writing the book he did not intend to write. Today, students no doubt need an introductory book such as the one by James Jeans, Science and Music (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1937) supplemented by a more weighty textbook on acoustics, but they could not fail to be stimulated by this book by Hunt, showing mistakes made by our forebears, as well as their eventual successes. From this point of view the book should be of much value to imaginative teachers. It provides a fascinating story, and, because of its careful collection of sources, it can be regarded as a definitive work of scholarship. Camp William James. Jack J. Preiss. Argo Books, Norwich, Vermont, 1978. 256 pp., illus. Paper, $7.00. Reviewed by Gifford Phillips· Camp William James was an experimental service camp named in honor of the celebrated USAmerican pragmatist philosopher. It operated at several locations in Vermont, U.S.A., for a scant year-from the late autumn of 1940 to the early autum of 1941. Despite its brief existence the Camp strongly influenced government-related service enterprises that came later. When President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, Sargent Shriver, the Corps' first director, acknowledged the example of William James. The influence of the Camp is remarkable when one considers its brief duration and its controversial character during its existence. Moreover, the Camp's achievements were slight and even its most dedicated sponsors were dissatisfied with its performance. Camp William James, even though it had democratic aims, was an elitist venture from the outset. Its intellectual godfather was a German emigre, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who had become a teacher of social philosophy at Dartmouth College. Huessy had been instrumental in founding work camps in his native Germany, but, when Hitler came to power, the camps were subverted to Nazi aims and Huessy left for the U.S.A. Most of the original recruits of the Camp came from the two prestigious Universities of Dartmouth and Harvard. In addition, the Camp had many important lay sponsors and supporters including Dorothy Thompson, the columnist, Dean James Landis of Harvard Law School and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the President of the country. Among the Camp's distinguished alumni is Page Smith, now an eminent historian. There existed at that time in the U...