Description
This is a fantastic reproduction edition of the 1934 classic on American Social Problems. It's worth a read to compare with present day issues, student views, and teachings about social problems today...
PREFACE TO AMERICAN SOCIAL PROBLEMS (originally published in 1934)
This book is intended to be a first survey of social problems characteristic of American life today (1934). It is planned to stimulate the interest of young students in their own social world, to lead them to observe and to discuss the facts and conditions which they meet, and to search for satisfactory explanations.
While there is no attempt at completeness of description, the essential facts of each problem studied are presented, together with suggested lines of interpretation. Moreover, the particular problems discussed are considered, not in isolation, but in relation both to each other and to the background of American life. In spite of apparent diversity of problems, there is an underlying unity in social life. It is the hope of the authors that this book may help students not only to remember isolated facts about particular problems, but to become clearly conscious of this unity and of its significance in understanding the separate facts described.
Because of the definite purpose of the authors to make the book really suited to the needs of students, many teachers have been consulted, their suggestions in regard to methods of presentation have been weighed, and their criticism of varied plans of arrangement and treatment of subject-matter have been carefully considered. To these many teachers we owe a debt of gratitude which we hereby gratefully acknowledge.
In 1934, at the time of original publication, Walter Greenwood Beach was Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Edward Everett Walker previously worked at Southwest Missouri State Teachers College and Stanford University.
This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the original Stanford University Press publication (ISBN 080470158X). Cover image courtesy the Library of Congress Photo Collection, Migrant Mother, by Dorothea Lange 1936.
CONTENTS
THE AUTHORS TO THE STUDENTS 1
GROUP LIFE
Chapter One. The Geographical Setting of Group Life 9
Chapter Two. Human Nature and Group Life 25
Chapter Three. Cultural Factors in Group Life 41
Chapter Four. The Rise of American Culture 56
PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND ADJUSTMENT
Chapter Five. Challenges of Population Growth 75
Chapter Six. Rural and Urban Groups and Problems 93
Chapter Seven. Social Adjustments Involving the Immigrant 122
Chapter Eight. The Negro in American Society 152
Chapter Nine. Problems of Health and Physical Well-Being 176
Chapter Ten. The Welfare of the Wage-Earner 202
Chapter Eleven. The Family 224
Chapter Twelve. The Welfare of Children 246
Chapter Thirteen. Poverty and the Welfare of Dependents 279
Chapter Fourteen. Crime and Its Treatment 301
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
Chapter Fifteen. Planning the Society of the Future 331
Chapter Sixteen. The Role of Education 344
Chapter Seventeen. The Role of Science 361
THE AUTHORS TO THE TEACHERS 378
INDEX 385
Tags:
stanford press, walter beach, edward walker, america, society, social problems, 1934, group life, american culture, population growth, urban population growth, immigrants, wage-earner, children, dependents, crime, the role of education, the role of science, textbook, teachers, students 
