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Two Forgotten Studies in Political Psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Harold D. Lasswell
Harold D. Lasswell
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

While it is true that every writer on politics has been to some degree an observer of psychological facts, the significance of this has never been so apparent to systematic students as it is today; otherwise, writings of considerable merit in political psychology could scarcely have suffered the fate of the two books referred to in the present study and have disappeared from sight. Dr. J. G. Zimmerman's Essay on National Pride, published at Zürich in 1758, might very well have been the point of departure for extended research into the nature of patriotism and international attitudes; Gottfried Duden's inquiry, Concerning the Essential Differences of States and the Motives of Human Nature, published at Cologne in 1822, stated problems and suggested methods for the examination of the realities of political power which ought to have inspired a century of minute research. Both books fell flat, and it is only in this day of numerous soundings in psychological politics that it has become worthwhile to disinter them.

That a book about national pride should have been published two years after the beginning of the Seven Years' War is a sharp reminder that European politics had undergone a transformation. The Reformation was undoubtedly a nationalist movement in many of its phases, but it introduced a series of sectional and party disturbances which intercepted the progress of nationalism. These had subsided, and by the eighteenth century the clash of competing imperialisms became not only a basic fact but a fact of which the men of the age were aware.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , November 1925 , pp. 707 - 717
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1925

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References

1 There is a short biographical note by Ischer, Rudolph in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 45 (1900).Google Scholar See also: Ischer, Rudolph, J. G. Zimmerman's Leben u. Werke, Bern, 1893Google Scholar; Dr.Minor, J., Fabeldichter, Satiriker und Popularyhilosophen, 1900.Google Scholar For the German text of the Essay, I have used Vom Nationalstolze, 4th Aufl., Zürich, 1768; for an English translation, see the Essay on National Pride, by the late Dr. J. G. Zimmerman, Aulic Counsellor and Physician to his Britannic Majesty at Hanover, Samuel H. Wilcocke, N. Y., 1799. With an account of the life and writings of Dr. Zimmerman.

2 See Merriam, C. E.The History of the Theory of Sovereignty since Rousseau (1900).Google Scholar

3 Über die wesentlichen Verschiedenheiten der Staaten und die Strebungen der menschlichen Natur.

4 His biography, by Schnake, Friderich, appears in Der Deutsche Pioneer (Cincinnati, Ohio) of January and February, 1875.Google Scholar

5 Bericht über eine reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika's und einen mehrjahr's auf enthalt am Missouri (in den jahren 1824, 25, 26, und 1827), etc., Elberfeld, S. Lucas, 1829; New edition, Bonn, E. Weber, 1834.

6 “Duden's selbst-anklage wegen seines Amerikanischen reisenberichtes. Zur Warnung vorf erneren leichtsinnig auswandern.” The title of this publication begins, Die Nordamerikanische democratie und das v. Tocqueville'sehe werk darüber…, Bonn, 1837.

7 Chevalier, Michel, later a distinguished lecturer in political economy at the University of Paris, had written Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord, Bruxelles, 1837.Google Scholar (German edition, Leipzig, 1837; English edition, Boston, 1839).

8 Europa und Deutschland von Nordamerika aus betrachtet. Bonn, 1833–35, 2 volumes. Grundsätze und Ansichten über Staatsformen und deren Ableitung aus dem Wesen des Staats selbst, Leipzig, 1832. Cited by von Mohl, , Encyklopädie der Staatswissenschaften, Tubingen, 1872.Google Scholar

9 See Merriam, as cited, p. 71 (footnote).

10 “Die verschiedenen stufen eines werdenenden gründlich zu beurtheilen, verlangt, sie in ihrer Reihenfolge zu betrachten,” Part III, p. 11.

11 “Keine Gewalt kann über ihre Basis hinaus wirken, noch auch gegen ihre eigene Basis siegend wirken,” III, 67.

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