This is the first of a series of volumes dealing with the changing pattern of men’s aspirations for their society during a long and critical period in the history of western Europe. The present volume is an essay commenting on the subject and presenting conclusions drawn from a considerable mass of available evidence. Topics include the decline of the Middle Ages and the emergency of endemic poverty in the sixteenth century, the gradual assumption of national responsibility for the poor, the evolution of the charitable trust, the literature of exhortation, and the changing structure of class aspirations.

Wilbur Kitchener Jordan was president of Radcliffe College and professor of history at Harvard University.

This 1961 book presents the findings of an empirical study that explored the attitudes and behaviors of patients who had experience with more than one way of organizing medical practice, and thereby sought to suggest some of the ways in which both lay and professional social structure figure in the utilization of medical care. The data are used to derive a tentative conceptual framework that takes account of structural as well as cultural factors in understanding the behavior of doctors and patients. The net result is a set of ideas that suggest the nature of the medical system that lies outside the walls of the hospitals, in direct contact with the community.

Eliot Freidson, New York University, and Montefiore Hospital

From the preface: “This is a book about advice—especially advice to local public officials. It tries to determine why analyses and proposals offered to local public agencies by consultants of many kinds so often seem to be useless, or at least go unused. The book offers an answer to that question and then suggests a number of ground rules—for advisers, consumers of advice, and third-party funders of advice—that I believe would improve matters.”

Peter Szanton was president of the New York City–Rand Institute.

This 1947 bibliographical study presents research related to the urban planning concept of the neighborhood unit. Topics include various U.S. city plans.

James Dahir was a member of the Social Work Year Book Department.

A report on the proceedings of the second National Service Conference, held April 2-4, 1967, in Washington, regarding the pros and cons of using national service to address a range of national problems, including improved health and education, the War on Poverty, and related challenges.

Contributors: Charles S. Benson, Roland M. Bixler, Jacob Clayman, Eli Ginzberg, Curtis Aller, Roger W. Little, Leon Bramson, Reed Martin, Mildred Robbins, Michael B. Katz, Dorothy M. Knoell, Leon M. Lessinger, Hyman Frankel, A. P. Angelides, Sydney Howe, Ruth Hagy Brod, Harold Taylor, John Naisbitt, Richard Graham, Al Carp, Jack Howard, David Squire, Donald Brown, Felix Rimberg, Dennis J. Clark, Homer Hagedorn, William Josephson, H. Donald Wilson, Terrence Cullinan, William A. Delano, Joshua L. Miner, Dyke W. Williams, David Dichter, Edward F. Hall, Robert Bird

Donald J. Eberly was National Service Secretariat.

A systematic presentation of the aims, methods, and cautions to be observed in the field of music in welfare work, made for music educators and musicians in the institutional fields. It stems from the author’s experience as director of the Bureau of Mental Health of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Willem van de Wall was director of the Committee for the Study of Music In Institutions, and lecturer in the School of Music Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Assisted by Clara Maria Liepmann.

This 1946 volume examines the systematic application of music as a means of occupational therapy and of recreation in hospitals in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly those for mental and nervous diseases. It stresses the need for professional collaboration between hospital workers and musician and presents a plan for integration of a music program into the hospital service.

Willem van de Wall was head of the Adult Education Section, Education Branch, Internal Affairs and Communications Division, Office of Military Government for Germany, United States.

Morbidity in the Municipal Hospitals of the City of New York was the result of a pilot study, undertaken by the Departments of Hospitals and Health of the City of New York in cooperation with the Russell Sage Foundation, to test a plan for hospital morbidity reporting and to evaluate data thus obtained. The study was concerned with procedures for collecting periodic morbidity data from hospitals and with analysis of the statistics of the 121,952 patients discharged from 31 municipal hospitals during a six-month experimental period. Here is a comprehensive analysis of in-patient data, covering race, sex, age, diagnosis, length of hospital stay, condition on discharge, surgical interventions, etc., presented in explanatory text and 56 tables. Including recommended specifications for initiating regular periodic morbidity reporting by all New York hospitals, including cost estimates. Previous experience in hospital morbidity reporting is also summarized.

Marta Fraenkel was assistant to the commissioner and director of medical statistics and records service in the Department of Hospitals, City of New York.

Carl L. Erhardt was director of the Bureau of Records and Statistics in the Department of Health, City of New York.

This 1933 survey of moneylending in Great Britain is part of a general survey of small loans prepared for the Russell Sage Foundation, the Small Loan Series of the Department of Remedial Loans. It traces the development of British moneylending by chronological periods and aims to show the devices whereby the enterprise of moneylending has adapted itself to its changing legal, economic, and social environments.

Dorothy Johnson Orchard was research assistant at the Russell Sage Foundation. Geoffrey May was a member of the Inner Temple, London.

Featuring “A Study of the Collective Agreement between the United Mine Workers of America and the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company” and “An Analysis of the Problem of Coal in the United States.” Part of the Industrial Relations Series of the Russell Sage Foundation, studying the experience in organizing relations between employers and employees in the United States with a view to giving the workers a larger measure of participation in the management of industry and documenting the fundamental changes taking place in industry related to human welfare, well-being, and the standard of living.

Mary Van Kleeck was director industrial studies at the Russell Sage Foundation.