BELIEVING that the course of events since 1929 has "developed among people a new curiosity and a keener critical sense" three members of the English faculty of the California Institute of Technology have published a collection of essays and entitled this "welter of conflicting opinion" "These United States." These articles are grouped under eight headings: society, business and economics, politics, science, religion, literature and art, and sport. Among the authors represented are: William B. Munro, Willard L. Sperry, Raphael Demos, F. W. Taussig, William Z. Ripley, Floyd H. Allport, Harold J. Laski, Albert Jay Nock, Walter Lippmann, Robert A. Millikan, Bishop William Lawrence, Max Eastman, and John R. Tunis.

The especial value of a book like this one is that the writings of so many men prominent in a great diversity of activities are compiled in one volume and made more accessible than they ordinarily would be. The editors have selected their essays with fine discrimination but the score of their book makes it impossible to include all who should be included. In any case it is a collection that would prove valuable to a student interested in contemporary American thought.

Alike in purpose and format is the "1934 Essay Annual" edited by Erich A. Walter of the University of Michigan. "Convinced after the reception of last year's volume, that readers genuinely desire a yearly record of 'What America Is Saying'" the editor has offered to the public his second compilation of current and significant personal, critical, controversial, and humorous essays.

He divides these into: the political scene at home and abroad, what men do and believe, familiar essays, the world of education and knowledge, America's cultural life, and some unorthodox thinkers. Represented are such authors as: Frank H. Simonds, Christian Gauss, Richard Cabot, Ellen Glasgow, Sherwood Anderson, Walter Prichard Eaton, and Henshaw Ward.

More inclusive than "These United States" this annual includes many personal and familiar essays and is not so much concerned with presenting a view of American contemporary political thought as it is in collecting in one volume the thoughts and literary efforts of men not primarily interested in politics and sociological problems but in expressing ideas on their own particular speciality. For those who would find a collection of periodical literature valuable it is an excellent compilation. A bibliography of outstanding American essays published in American periodicals during 1934 is a valuable supplement.