Technology and Culture

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 229 into account the forces in India that mitigate against such major re­ forms. Current land ownership patterns and occupational dis­ tributions are entrenched in the social and political structure of the nation; the elite and inefficient system has resisted thirty years of reforms similar if not identical to those of Nair, and they simply cannot be wished or planned away by “experts.” Thus, to suggest, for example, that “the entrenched attitudes and practices will change dramatically if a heavy fine is imposed on farmers who have access to water but do not irrigate a given variety or crop in the appropriate manner” (p. 97) does not really answer the question. Instead, it raises new and more serious questions such as “Who will collect and who will pay such taxes, and why should they?” Aside from some poor editing (uncharacteristic of the University of Chicago Press) and a disconcerting proliferation of sentence frag­ ments (e.g., “As for socialjustice. That, too, is important,” p. 28), the book is well—even beautifully—written. And though the conclusion does not rigorously follow from the observations in earlier descriptive sections, it contains some important information and interesting ob­ servations. If the reader can bear in mind that the complexity of Indian society—including its large number of unsuccessful Punjabis, efficient Biharis, Communist landlords, etc., etc.—is only hinted at in this short book, he or she will benefit considerably from a careful reading of In Defense of the Irrational Peasant. Jay Weinstein* A Bibliography on Historical Organization Practices. Vol. 4: Documen­ tation of Collections. Compiled by Rosemary S. Reese. Edited by Frederick L. Roth, Jr., and Merrilyn Rogers O’Connell. Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, 1979. Pp. ix+218; index. In recent years there has been a growing interest among Americans in the lives and mode of living of their ancestors. Whether stimulated by the Bicentennial, popular television dramatization, or deeper cul­ tural imperatives, this new awareness (and perhaps also the availability of federal funds) has given rise to lively activity in existing museums and historical societies and to the establishment of new institutions, particularly at the small city or county level. Preservation of historical properties, identification and cataloging of collections of artifacts, and documentary research are no longer exclusively the concerns of the large well-established historical agencies; they have *Dr. Weinstein is a sociologist at Georgia Institute of Technology and editor of Studies in Comparative International Development. He has done research and taught in Madras, Ahmedabad, Poona, Hyderabad, and other places in India and has written extensively on Indian society. 230 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE become nagging problems for the able but often untrained en­ thusiasts who by and large staff the small institutions. To meet the informational needs of the small museums or historical societies, the Association of State and Local History has issued a series of basic bibliographies on historical organization practices, of which this is the fourth. It was compiled by a staff based at the New York State Historical Association at Cooperstown, with the help of curators and museum professionals from many of the major eastern museums, for example, the Smithsonian Institution and the Henry Ford Museum. The bibliography begins with a basic reference shelf consisting of a miscellany of guide books, how-to manuals, and encyclopedias of ob­ jects most likely to cross the desks and fill the closets of the small historical agency: glassware, silver, firearms, photographs, and the like. Most of the reference books are recent imprints which would be useful acquisitions for the small institution if the budget stretches that far. A rather superfluous chapter on historical organizations and a sec­ tion on books about collecting follow, but by far the bulk of the bibli­ ography consists of books on artifacts and decorative arts collections broken down into categories such as coins, clocks and watches, cos­ tume, etc. The compilers have included notes on the special organiza­ tions and periodicals catering to collectors in each category. For example, the section on firearms and armor refers to the Company of Military Historians and the quarterly publication, Military Collector and Historian. The Hagley Museum colleagues...