Through the generosity of the late Professor Benedict Anderson and Ajarn Charnvit Kasetsiri, the Thammasat University Library has newly acquired some important books of interest for students of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) studies, political science, sociology, and related fields.
They are part of a special bequest of over 2800 books from the personal scholarly library of Professor Benedict Anderson at Cornell University, in addition to the previous donation of books from the library of Professor Anderson at his home in Bangkok. These newly available items will be on the TU Library shelves for the benefit of our students and ajarns. They are shelved in the Charnvit Kasetsiri Room of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.
Among them is a newly acquired book that should be useful to TU students who are interested in sociology, anthropology, political science, history, cultural studies, urban studies, and related fields.
Small Town in Mass Society is by Professor Arthur J. Vidich, who taught sociology at the New School for Social Research in New York, and Professor Joseph Bensman, who taught sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and at City College of New York.
The TU Library collection includes several other books about different aspects of life in small towns.
Through a close study of a community renamed as Springdale, New York, Professors Vidich and Bensman showed the small town as continuously and increasingly drawn into the central institutions and processes of the total society.
The work gained much critical acclaim, although residents of the small town under study objected to different aspects of the book, especially its critical view of certain key players in its invisible government.
The main point was to show how this rural community pretended to stress the importance of rural values and rural politics while largely giving up its authority to larger bureaucratic institutions and governments.
A sample of some reviews of Small Town in Mass Society follow:
“In its unobtrusiveness and lack of pretention, their account reflects true theoretical sophistication. For they could not have arrived at the interpretations they advance or even looked for the facts they report unless they were thoroughly conversant with the class theories of Marx, Weber, Schumpeter and Veblen, psychoanalysis and the leading concepts of modern economic theory. It pains me to have to report that the virtues of this book are exceptional in works by contemporary sociologists.”
- Dennis Wrong, The New Leader, March 1958
“All high school English texts that still offer urban students the rural picture of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town should list Small Town as a more recent snapshot.”
- Harris Dienstfrey, Commentary, April 1958
“This book is a “must” for sociologists, anthropologists, and social psychologists in many areas of study; also there will be no doubt be some demand for it from the more thoughtful readers of popular non-fiction.”
- Thomas Laswell, Sociology & Social Research, May/June 1958
“By studying the community as a form of social organization in its own right and as something more than a mere setting for research, and by utilizing an historical perspective in their analysis, Vidich and Bensman have produced a study which this reviewer regards as the best study to date of a rural American community.”
- Gerhard Lenski, American Sociological Review, August 1958
“This is exemplary social science community research. It is also a tribute to the resourcefulness of the authors.”
- Noel Gist, Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, Sept. 1958
“The striking dichotomy between the values and attitudes that the people of Springdale have in relation to their own image and the reality values and attitudes imposed upon them by the forces of the mass society makes for an intriguing story both for the lay reader and for one with a professional interest.”
- Esther Twente, Social Service Review, September 1958
The analysis of the intricate picture of rural politics is excellent and indicates that theories of politics based on class and interest groups “are, at best, preliminary steps in the process of understanding the detailed dynamics of the political situation.”
- Edmund deS Brunner, Political Science Quarterly, Sept. 1958
“The detailed description of informal and formal political organization and the astute analysis of community organization affected by a few generalized leaders, a number of specialized leaders, and the Protestant churches are typical of the high quality of this work.
- Mary A. Ericson, Social Forces, October 1958
Vidich and Bensman’s unique contribution lies in their emphasis on the manner in which a community is influenced by forces beyond itself and yet is primarily engrossed in its local concerns.
- Victor Obenhaus, The Journal of Religion, October 1958
“This sociological analysis of administrative function and individual influence in a small town is so good that it may safely be recommended even to the layman normally distrustful of the systematic study of society. It as captivating as a novel.”
- Editorial Board, Times Literary Supplement, November 1958
“The (book) is a readable, stimulating analysis, accessible to the intelligent layman and valuable to the professional sociologist, political scientist, or community relations specialist. Such is the caliber of the study that the professional will look forward hopefully to a forthcoming companion discussion of the methodology.”
- Janice Harris, Social Research, Winter 1958
“In its blend of structure and action analysis Small Town in Mass Society seems to this reviewer the best community study yet produced.”
- Willis Sutton Jr., Rural Sociology, December 1958
“It is a startling contrast to find in Small Town in Mass Society one of the most original and perspicacious community studies yet published. The joint attention to structure and process, to the economic and material roots of both and their psychological ramifications, the concentration upon a few major problems – class, power, religion – has here produced a work of exceptional caliber.”
- Harold Orlans, American Anthropologist, February 1959
“As a study in depth of a typical American small town that has lost the isolation of former days, the book is fresh, important and unique.”
- RSC, National Civic Review, April 1959
“By scrutinizing the sources and effects of false consciousness in rural American life, Vidich and Bensman not only call into question one of the most cherished popular illusions about American society, they also help to preserve , with great skill and sophistication, the tradition of radical criticism.”
- Maurice Stein, The New Leader, April 1959
“Small Town in Mass Society is an unusually attractive and rewarding study.”
- Gerhard Lenski, American Journal of Sociology, May 1959
“This study is…. of particular interest to those who may wonder how, in rural communities of high democratic principle, the political ‘boss’ is possible.”
- A. Pitt-Rivers, Man, December 1959
“Vidich and Bensman firmly establish the fact that effective power over local life rests largely outside of the community..”
- H. Westergaard, The British Journal of Sociology, June 1961
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)