“The title is misleading, since only birds which regularly nest in the British Isles are included; and the alphabetical order is inconvenient. The information in the text is unreliable, and grammar as well as sense are frequently disregarded by the writer.”
| − | Spec. 94: 752. My. 20, ’05. 110w. |
Westermarck, Edward Alexander. [Origin and development of the moral ideas.] 2v. v. 1. *$3.50. Macmillan.
6–18579.
Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.
“The citations are accurate and from so many writers that this volume at once becomes a source book of great value. The style is compact, but very readable. Only in a few of the first chapters did the reviewer have any sense of an attempt at hair-splitting. On the whole, the volume is a masterly discussion of great moral questions and leaves one anxious to see the second.” Carl Kelsey.
| + + − | Ann. Am. Acad. 28: 489. N. ’06. 760w. (Review of v. 1.) |
“Dr. Westermarck’s book makes good reading for all who are interested in the evolution of human ideas and human institutions, from the tariff to woman suffrage, and from capital punishment to the elective system in colleges and universities.”
| + + | Nation. 84: 545. Je. 13, ’07. 1470w. (Review of v. 1.) |
“The interpretation of these facts may here and there be questioned, but the important thing is to have the facts collected so as to be within easy reach. Ethical theorists should find the work invaluable, as thus furnishing them with concrete facts to rest their theories on or to test their theories by. The sociologist will find illuminating discussion of many customs, while the general reader if interested in matters of universal human concern, cannot fail to get pleasure and instruction from the reading of the book. Altogether it is perhaps safe to say that the work is the most important contribution to ethical literature within recent years.” Evander Bradley McGilvary.