Review of Drives toward war

Abstract

Reviews the book, Drives toward war by Edward Chance Tolman (1942). The author states, "As an American, a college professor, and one brought up in the pacifist tradition, I am intensely biased against war. It is for me stupid, interrupting, unnecessary, and unimaginably horrible. I write this essay within that frame of reference. In short, I am driven to discuss the psychology of war and its possible abolition because I want intensely to get rid of it." The author calls on the need for man's entire psychological nature to be balanced in order for general happiness and welfare to be a result. A look at the table of contents in the book provides the theme: Psychologically Adjusted Man, The Biological Drives, The Social Techniques, Heredity, Learning and the Psychological Dynamisms, Drive-Conversions, Psychologically Adjusted Man and the Abolition of War. The author has done a splendid job of focusing attention upon the dynamics of behavior, and of untangling their relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)