Exchange and Power in Social Life. by Peter M.

Blau
Review by: Kurt W. Back
Social Forces, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Sep., 1965), p. 128
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2574842 .
Accessed: 14/06/2014 22:33

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.77.83 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:33:55 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
128 SOCIAL FORCES
relations of class to patterns of association, styles
of life, parent and peer socialization, values, be-
havior, and personality, and ending with two chap-
ters on the causes, amount, and channels of vertical
mobility.
A few more or less minor faults can be noted,
some of which may be merely points at which my
biases do not run parallel with those of Professor
Hodges. In this category I would put, first, his
fondness for the functional explanation, without
indicating to the presumably untutored audience
the peculiarities of this form of reasoning. Second,
an occasional awkwardness of style trips up the
understanding, for example: ". . . it seems folly to
deny that the pinnacles of America's economic and
power elites are Iot becoming ever less permeable
and more rigid" (p. 274). Also, the thicket of
footnotes whose qualifications and amendments
clog the argument of several chapters seem espe-
cially inappropriate for the intended audience.
Lastly, I objected to the strong, repeated statement
that class differences are doomed to disappear
under the oncoming flood of "massification" of life
styles, with little consideration of the data opposing
this opinion.
The basic question about the book, however, is
whether it fulfills its aim of summarizing for the
nonexpert reader the major positions and findings
on social class. The book does succeed in covering
almost all of the major issues and results in this
area, but the effort to cover a wide range some-
times prevents a truly searching evaluation of the
topic under discussion. For example, one occa-
sionally finds staccato treatments in which names
are associated with capsule summaries of positions
(pp. 43, 159), drastically shortened descriptions of
a topic (as in the discussion of the "delinquent sub-
culture" thesis (pp. 222-223), and a reluctance to
offer the reader an informed judgment on the rela-
tive merits of two opposing positions (as in the
discussion of Freudian and anti-Freudian theories
of socialization [pp. 175-176]). It is not justifiable
to ask that a summary of this kind offer thorough
refashionings of empirical findings into original
theoretical forms, but I could wish that some of the
materials had been pruned more selectively, or-
ganized more rigorously, and evaluated and com-
pared more thoroughly. In other words, a book
of this kind, for this audience, probably should be
obvious, but probably should not be as sketchy as
this one is in some places.
These problems are clearly a matter of degree
and none of them detracts seriously from the basic
quality of the book. The discussion is informed
and competent, and the coverage is complete. This
book is a solid introduction to a sprawling and
comiplex field. ELTON F. JACKSON
Indianta University
EXCHANGE AND POWER IN SOCIAL LIFE. By Peter
M. Blau. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964.
352 pp. $7.75.
This book is an ambitious undertaking. It is
This content downloaded from 62.122.77.83 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 22:33:55 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
an attempt to present a unified framework for
interpersonal relations, organizational structures,
and stability and change in society. It also attempts
to show the limits of several current theories and
to transcend particularly the exchange theory
(Homans, Thibaut and Kelly) and structure-
functionalism (Parsons). Although the style is
lucid and the logic consistent, the book is so full
of a variety of ideas that it is easy to lose the
thread of the argument and to become confused by
the variety of topics. It may be best, therefore, for
the reader to start at the last chapter which show,
the main types of interpersonal relations and of
structures of social associations considered in two
fourfold tables. In interpersonal relations, one
distinction is made between intrinsic and extrinsic
reward; the other, between reciprocal and unilateral
relationships. Exchange relations are only one pos-
sible type; namely, the extrinsic reciprocal com-
binations. The other categories make it possible
to handle pure attraction as intrinsic reward and
dominant relationships as the unilateral kind.
Similarly in social structure Blau distinguishes par-
ticularism and universalism (somewhat differently
from Parsons) and emergent and goal-focused
structures. This division makes it possible to dis-
cuss not only stable structures, but also the forces
for change, especially the particularism-goal-focused
combination which leads to opposition within the
system. These relationships, and the dialectical
dilemmas between these types form the subject mat-
ter of the succeeding chapters.
In the first 11 chapters Blau leads us in a mean-
dering, civilized discussion all the way from friend-
ship and influence in the dyad to the conditions of
democracy and revolution. He does this without
presenting a formalized, deductive system or a series
of inferences from empirical studies. Both are here,
but in a distilled, suggestive fashion. The volume is
full of interesting insights, and on every page we find
at least one challenging idea based on the author's
wide knowledge of sociological theory and empirical
research and on his own research experience. Al-
though his insights are frequently presented as quo-
tations from novels (Proust seems to be his favor-
ite), this does not detract from the cogency.
We may thus ask finally whether the author has
succeeded in the task he has set for himself. He
has not presented the definitive theory on social
interaction and social structure or written a com-
pendium of knowledge in the field on which such a
theory could be built. He has provided a frame-
work for the future development of social psy-
chology which cannot be disregarded and filtered
with seminal ideas which will be discussed and
tested for a long time. Finally, the book is a de-
light for the reader and a challenge for the teacher
to use as a text.
KURT W. BACK
Du ke University
THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH: BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
SCIENTIFIC METHOD. By Carlo L. Lastrticci.