Retreat to the Ghetto: The End of a Dream? by Thomas L. BlairReview by: Wilhelmina E. PerrySocial Forces, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Sep., 1978), pp. 326-327Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577654 .

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326 / Social Forces / vol. 57:1, september 1978

results of early childhood and late adolescent intervention programs-i.e. Head Start and Upward Bound. That an early adolescent program, as reported on here, can yield results of this general nature is not, then, necessarily a fact of major significance.

Lest this review appear exclusively cynical and critical, let me consider other pertinent aspects of the monograph of which the reader should be aware and which may be of interest. Middle Start is a report of a seven-year experimental field study which was designed to determine if an intervention program for young adolescents could affect the educational performance of economically disadvantaged adoles- cents. Three hundred and ninety thirteen- and fourteen-year-old children (mostly male and mostly black) from five cities and 14 schools made up the core group of the study. One-half of this core group was assigned to the experimental group and the other half served as the control group. The study was designed to assess experimentally the impact of intervention on the following variables: persistence in school, junior high school grades, senior high school grades, achievement test scores, assignment to a special school track, and attendance at academic or other special schools.

The experimental stimuli were Prom, the Special Opportunity Program conducted through Oberlin College and involving the experimental group in an intensive six-week academic summer program and systematic follow-up activities in the home school over a three- to four-year period. The follow-up activities included personal and academic counseling, tutorial aid, making available information on selecting and financing a college education, and other supportive services provided to the experimental group.

The experimental group attained significantly higher scores on four postprogram measures of academic performance. On a fifth measure the experi- mental group scored in the hypothesized direction but did not attain scores that were significantly different from the control group scores.

There is but a narrow, albeit significant, base on which to recommend this book. Perhaps those concerned with identifying and resolving problems in field-based experimental research might find this monograph in some way useful. The others of us must await a more balanced treatment of the linkage between experimental field research and a given social problem.

Retreat to the Ghetto: The End of a Dream? By Thomas L. Blair. New York: Hill & Wang, 1977. 263 pp. $8.95.

Reviewer: WILHELMINA E. PERRY, Glassboro State College

This book provides an examination of the historical and contemporary themes in the integrationist and separatist ideologies of black America. The key discussion point is the "legacy" of Malcolm X, who "illuminated" the essential components of a black nationalist movment.

Generally, the study is highly informative, vividly descriptive and insight- filly reactive. The discussion of the "new black politics" especially demonstrates the acuity of the observations. However, the author's sociology suffers somewhat from a bias toward a Great Man interpretation of black ideology and social movements. Thus, too frequently, Blair concerns himself with the personal qualities

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Book Reviews / 327

of a black leader, or he stretches out the pronouncements derived from a roundtable seminar, a television panel appearance, or some other single discourse. Also, the inclusion of a summary chapter (or epilogue) might have provided more effective closure to the chronicle of differing ideas. Even so, the book is lively reading and offers a substantive, up-to-date inventory of black ideology, particularly the separatist brand.

Blair formulates precisely the differences between the two contending perspectives but leaves the uniformities largely unexplored. The effect of this selective discussion is a picture of ideological purity. However, it is perhaps because Blair singles out the divisive issues that the reader so quickly gains understanding of how the constant interaction between the two systems releases new dynamics. Furthermore, the author heightens the ideological dialectics when he links black consciousness with competing organizational contexts. Unfortunately, he does not tightly preserve the traditional conceptualization of ideology as a belief system. There are shifts between beliefs and postures, modes of consciousness and modes of action.

Because there is an implicit assumption that ideologies should be seen to work, Blair views black thinkers as strategists and/or mobilizers. There is disciplined speculation as to why the ideologies have floundered in influencing outcomes and gaining tangible victories while the black masses "waste away in a gehenna of torment." Mainly, the exponents of black social thought, Blair argues, have oversimplified social processes. For example, Malcolm X, whose "natural abode was the open city," perhaps understood better the "ex-field Negro" than the "field Negro." Also, we glean that black cultural nationalism is the most coherently developed ideological theme although its expressions are "in a sphere of unreality and futility."

Blair possibly exaggerates the impact of Malcolmist ideology on the masses, and he does not sufficiently discuss black thought with reference to other contemporary ideologies. The analysis of a black ideology via a look at personal beliefs of a "spokesman" is justified only if those beliefs were in fact adopted by a black collectivity. We agree that unquestionably, Malcolm X's forceful symbolism and abrasive anecdotes had consciousness-raising impact. However, in our view, Malcolm X was a behavioral model, not especially an ideological referent for the black masses in urban ghettos. The corollary is that Blair perhaps overestimates "the eclipse" of the integrationist perspective. He writes with deep understanding of the separatist issues but he gives short shrift to the integrationist issues. Moreover, Blair needs, in looking at the spread of black nationalism, to expand his discussion of factors of conduciveness in the larger American society. After all, the early integrationists were the extremists of their time. In spite of these shortcom- ings, we commend the general merit of Blair's stimulating study.

The Pity of It All: Polarisation of Racial and Ethnic Relations. By Leo Kuper. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977. 302 pp. $17.50.

Reviewer: GRAHAM C. KINLOCH, Florida State University

Despite fairly rapid decolonization and increased participation of third world countries in international politics, intergroup conflict and violence on a worldwide scale have gained significant visibility in recent years. Such developments have

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