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placency about America combined with anti-communism had not yet
merged into the American Way." He admits "a too great readiness to
consider traditional interpretations as 'dated.''' (A new name keeps
appearing in Riesman's recent work: Reinhold Niebuhr and "tragic
realism." I venture to guess, Riesman fashion, that this is the new thing. )
The rapid obsolescence of some of Riesman's ideas came from his
way of being too quick to tum observations into general statements.
Fashions were often mistaken for the enduring American character. Now,
when the outside world seems to change more rapidly and more drastical–
ly than ever before, the amount of revision the busy opinionizer will
be in for is too much to be practical. Even such a profound matter as the
education of the young was changed, in the mind of important sections
of society, by the news of Sputnik and that alone. New aspects of the
national personality may be suddenly brought to life by a political or
military event. For the sake of argument, one can imagine that if we
were trapped and isolated behind a hard position from which we could
not retreat, an America, inner-directed in the manner of Dutch South
Africa would be a possibility.
It
is the over-estimation of trends by Ries–
man that makes the use of the name of de Toqueville misleading as a
comparison.
To quote Norman Birnbaum again in his description of the changed
Riesman: "The politics of abundance, in its American form, now strike
him as less open; he is, in general, critical of America's role in the
world. Most of all he is terrible frightened of the prospect of atomic
war." The sociologists in this collection hardly consider, however, the
possibility that a truly radical questioning of our life would make it im–
possible for Riesman to continue to use his old methods. The interview
and questionaire methods of social research are particularly vulnerable, or
so one would think. The interest in vague details almost presupposes an
acceptance of the central aims of the society. How could a man pro–
foundly worried about the future of his country take part in what Ries–
man himself describes as "the enormous stream of social-psychological
research now being devoted to conformity, yea-saying, acquiescence, etc."
In a frightened nation, few will worry about what a small number of
high school students think of success or excellence. This would be some–
what true even if we were not frightened; as it is, the crisis makes these
questionaires unintelligible as a professional pursuit. In this book, the
work of Elaine Sofer with college students is recommended for its
creative way of approaching the measurement of inner-direction and
other-direction. But the most striking thing about Miss Sofer's work
is
the trouble she has making anything meaningful out of the answers
