Collective Violence ed. by James F. Short Jr, Marvin E. Wolfgang (review)

178 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW tion, and there are in particular fascinatingspeculations and well-organized presentations of work on the forefrontof biologicalresearch. The articlesby Albert Szent-Gy6rgyi and LudwigvonBertalanffyofferthe possibility of major modifications in the scopeand natureof physiology, while Jay BoydBest's exhibitionof the unexpectedly subtlebehaviourof planarianwormshasimportant implications for evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biologybringssomecoherence to the volume,connecting discussions of teleological explanation and molecular biology with an examination of nineteenth-century historians' attitudes to progress and distinctions between biological andhistorical systems. Hoaryconfusions between history ascraftand science are succinctly disposed of by HaydenV. White and StephanK6rner. White observes that, although historical systems are frequently metaphorically described asorganisms, theydiffer from biological systems by their capacityto actasif theycouldchoose theirownancestors. K6rnerargues questionably that, sincescientists, unlikehistorians, aim at the axiomatization of their results, they workwithindoubleormulti -layered conceptual systems, whilehistorians utilize single-layered systems. The validity of this assumption is limited, as may be inferred from Rene Taton's'Historical observations concerning therelationship between biology and mathematics.' Taton viewsthe scientific revolution of the seventeenth century as a transitionfrom a science of qualitiesto one of quantities,and, while he ignores major strands of naturalphilosophy and magic,doesidentifythe programmeif not the achievement of corpuscular philosophy and its heirs.Progressive 'mathematization" wasattemptedin biologythroughthe construction of mechanical models,as ambitiousand limited as currentcomparisons of brainsand computers. Theseparts of the storyare developed in Mirko D. Grmek'sinformativechapter,reducedby compression almostto a catalogue, and in JohnWisdom's provocative statement. Taton'smostinteresting section concerns the statistical studyby Bemouilliof the utility and safetyof smallpox inoculation;it lacksadequatelinkagewith socialhistory,yet makesrewarding reading. TREVOR H. LEVERE University o[ Toronto CollectiveViolence.Editedby JAM•.s1,.S•OR%JRand MARVIN E. WOLFGANG. Chicago, Aldine-Atherton, I97•. Pp. x, 385. $I•.5o cloth,$4.95paper. One contributorto this compendium remarks:'There are severalrecentand well-publicized volumes dealingwith violence to demonstrate (shouldtherehave beenany lingeringdoubt) that the socialsciences haveyet to exhausttheir extraordinarycapacityfor producing pretentious and vacuous accounts of complex and vital human concerns'(p. i6o). Even so,and this bookcountsas anotheradditionto the drearyranks.At 25½retail, CollectiveViolence would not be a bargain. The twenty-seven essays by variousauthorsfall into threemain categories: REVIEWS 179 (a) TheoreticalIssues, (b) Comparative Perspectives, and (c) Dimensions of CollectiveViolencein the United States.With occasional exceptions, sections (a) and (c) are despicable. Havingwitnessed the Detroit riotsand a considerablepart of the disturbances at Berkeley and Stanford,I cansaythat on major problems of fact-let aloneinterpretation-the authorsare simplywrong.A notablevictorovermystrictures isHugh DavisGraham,whomakes some striking theoretical comments aboutthehistoryof violence in America.How canwe explainthe paradoxthat Americans havebeensucha rowdybunchwhile at the sametime their politicalinstitutions havebeensostable? Graham'sanswer: '... our capitalistic, federalstructure hashistorically pitted our racial,ethnic, andeconomic groups against oneanother ratherthanagainst thestate...' (p. 209) Historiansare likely to learn the mostfrom part (b] aboutother societies. Here are localized case studiesabout communitiesin Mexico, East Africa, Burma.The articleon EastAfrica offersa provocative explanation of why 'sociallydivisiveformsof collective violence'are morecommonin chiefdoms than in tribal societies. (p. I69•. A startlingpieceon the BenaBenaof New Guinea shows how a culturecan systematically teachcrueltyto its fledgeling members. The s},½^ would find no followingthere.They haveno pets.If their abuseof animalsis scandalous, their tortureof eachotheris worse.On largeraidsthey kill everybody theycapture.Any unmarriedfemaleiseligiblefor rape.A man is permittedto kill hiswife guiltyof certainoffenses by publiclystuffingher vaginawith red-hot stones. The articlesin part (b) are mainlyby anthropologists. A historian mustbe gratefulfor theircomparative data,but hecanalsobesho.cked bytheircrosssectional approach. Some of these writersseem notonlyreconciled to theirlack of anytime-dimension but evenproudof it: 'Butbecause the system existed, forwhatever evolutionary, historical, or psycho-biological reasons, children were trainedfor it because suchtrainingwasnecessary for survival'(p. 184). Those evolutionary reasons wouldseemto be crucialto the picture. RAY GINGER Universityo[ Calgary Polybius. v.w. WALBANK. SatherClassical Lectures vol. 42. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London,Universityof CaliforniaPress,I972. Pp. x, 2oI. $8.5o. 'Who is there so dull and feeble as not to want to know how and with what kindof politicalsystem theRomans wereabletomaster nearlyall theinhabited world and bring it under one dominionin not quite fifty-threeyears-a phenomenon uniquein history?' The authorof thisspiritedchallenge wasthe third of the major Greek historians, but he has not receivedthe acclaimaccordedto hisgreatpredecessors, Herodotus and Thucydides. Neithera beguiling nor an impressive stylist, earnestly didactictowardhisreaders, captious and scathing towardotherwriters,dealingmoreover with a rathersicklyperiodof Grecianhistory,in whichthe main themewasthe riseof...