CHILDREN OF CRISIS

Robert Coles is a psychiatrist who is interested in how people relinquish old ways and take up new ones. He finds the South "Filled with an underground of sly liberals in the midst of situations hardly likely to support their efforts." In a pace-setting study, Dr. Coles investigates and analyzes some twenty persons who represent the spectrum of the South, from the Negro children like Ruby who are "bearers and makers of a tradition" as they Face down the mobs to go to desegregated schools, through their white classmates, both hostile and protective, Negro and white teachers, dealing with their respective backgrounds, the protesters, the integrationist Southerners; the lookers-on and the last ditch standers for segregation. Among the Negroes, Dr. Coles found a remarkable resilience and an incredible capacity for survival (there appeared to be no noticeable correlation between adversity and mental illness); he found too how they prepared for life ("If you are black in Louisiana it is like cloudy weather; you just don't see the sun much."). Seeking the roots of prejudice, he admonishes against "the glee and pride of large-scale answers." Dr. Coles brings his discipline into the world of social interaction and is making a name and place for himself and his work. His book is not popular in tone, but it is reachable, readable.