ermining the formation of public
opinion.

3. The Literature of War

The emphasis upon the struggle for existence which followed the
publication of Darwin's _The Origin of Species_, in 1859, seemed to many
thinkers to give a biological basis for the necessity and the
inevitability of war. No distinction was made by writers of this school
of thought between competition and conflict. Both were supposed to be
based on instinct. Nicolai's _The Biology of War_ is an essay with the
avowed design of refuting the biological justification of war.

Psychological studies of war have explained war either as an expression
of instinct or as a reversion to a primordial animal-human type of
behavior. Patrick, who is representative of this latter school,
interprets war as a form of relaxation. G. W. Crile has offered a
mechanistic interpretation of war and peace based on studies of the
chemical changes which men undergo in warfare. Crile comes to the
conclusion, however, that war is an action pattern, fixed in the social
heredity of the national group, and not a type of behavior determined
biologically.

The human nature of war and the motives which impel the person to the
great adventure and the supreme risk of war have not been subjected to
sociological study. A mass of material, however, consisting of personal
documents of all types, letters, common-sense observation, and diaries
is now available for such study.

Much of the literature of war has been concentrated on this problem of
the abolition of war. There are the idealists and the conscientious
objectors who look to good will, humanitarian sentiment, and pacificism
to end war by the transformation of attitudes of men and the policies of
nations. On the other hand, there are the hard-headed and practical
thinkers and statesmen who believe, with Hobbes, that war will not end
until there is established a power strong enough to overawe a
recalcitrant state. Finally, there is a third group of social thinkers
who emphasize the significance of the formation of a world public
opinion. This "international mind" they regard of far greater
significance for the future of humanity than the problem of war or
peace, of national rivalries, or of future race conflicts.

4. Race Conflict

A European school of sociologists emphasizes conflict as the fundamental
social process. Gumplowicz, in his book _Die Rassenkampf_, formulated a
theory of social contacts and conflicts upon the conc