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This small volume is, according to the author, intended as a popular handbook for men. It is supposed to be written from the biological point of view. This reviewer has difficulty in detecting
any definite point of view, biological or otherwise, unless statistics may be called a point of view.
The style and tone is very popular indeed. Statements made are supported by statistics rather than scientific proof. The author quotes lavishly from his own experience as Director of the Institute of Family Relations of Los Angeles. The quotations as well as chapter headings have a strong tinge of the 'confession' magazine story. For example one chapter is headed Are You Old Enough to Marry? Another, Beware of Widows Still More of Divorcees.
Interspersed with the above is enough good common sense and insight in human behavior to mislead the unwary. This book will definitely enjoy a wide circulation and appeal to the reader who secures his 'scientific' information from Mr. Anthony's radio talks. It contains many generalizations, half truths and contradictory statements. To the type of reader who will be attracted to this volume it will prove most confusing. The author maintains that masturbation is harmful, but that the harmful effects are 'mental' not physical. The psychiatrist and psychoanalyst will find opinions quoted again and again in support of some obsession or phobia that are novel, to say the least.
In discussing marriage, the author touches on every human institution related to marriage, covering a great deal of territory in a most superficial manner. Finances he states wisely are seldom a real bar to marriage. When a couple are emotionally ready they get married. Also that in marriage it is the emotional and not the chronological age that is most important. On the other hand he discusses degrees and percentages of 'maleness' and 'femaleness', desirable traits one must look for and undesirable ones to avoid as though these could be measured with a yard