The War and Mental Health in England: By James M. Mackintosh, M.D. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1944. London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. 91 pp.

This is a smoothly and gracefully written little book by the Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Glasgow, a man who has long been associated with the mental hygiene movement in Great Britain. The book is broad in scope and perspective. It sketches with swift strokes the effect of the war upon various groups in England and then goes on to discuss the psychiatric aspects of some postwar problems.

The author's remarks go sharply to the point. In the prewar period 'we were blind to the growing dangers because we did not want to see them… The nation pleads guilty at the bar of history.' But '… the democratic peoples … did not believe Hitler could be so foul a monster as to mean what he said.' Concerning the process of adjustment, 'the experience of the last war indicates that, so long as the war lasts, many people maintain balance without great difficulty; but when the strain is over, a multitude of overworked minds break down'.

The nervous and mental reactions to the war of various groups are considered. 'Rheumatism' and 'dyspepsia' were the chief symptoms in the new soldier who failed to adjust to war service. The evacuation made people realize with horror that many of their countrymen 'did not know how to live under ordinary conditions of human decency'.

One of the trials of the housewife was to be regarded as the natural enemy of the butcher and grocer and to be met with the 'glassy stare and defensive lie when they knew the coveted article was under the counter, reserved for special favorites …'. The