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When the first volume of this work was reviewed in these columns in 1938 (19, 263), many of its essential features were considered, and they need not be repeated on the present occasion.
In his first volume the author furnished illustrative material to show how the process of civilization is revealed in the alterations in the attitude of the people in their everyday behaviour. The reasons for this behaviour are usually unconscious and do not usually attract attention so long as it remains in conformity with the generally accepted standards of the society concerned.
He proceeds now to give a systematic account of the transformations of society in the West from the Middle Ages down to the present time. He shows conclusively that these transformations—contrary to widely current beliefs—are not due to any inherent drive in a particular direction and that they are not brought about by the influence of particular leading personalities or individual events nor by one category of factors alone. They can only be adequately described when one conceives of a community as a whole. Under the influence of changes in their essential conditions of life, ultimately of a material nature (as, for instance, geographical factors, new methods of production,