Review of Corporal Punishment by H.A. Falk
Ellsworth Faris
This is a doctoral dissertation from Teachers College. The writer divides American history into four periods and starts out to find the explanation of the changing practice of corporal punishment in the social and political conditions as they, in turn, changed. It might be convincing to a reader who knew nothing of what was happening in Europe where there was no frontier, in the American sense, and where there was no war fought for the emancipation of slaves. An adequate acquaintance with the history of theories of punishment would have obviated many errors. Two verses from the Proverbs of Solomon were not the reason why children were punished in Colonial America; the practice is older than Solomon. Some four or five questionnaires revealed that the practice is still going strong.
ELLSWORTH FARIS
Lake Forest, Illinois
