Book Reviews
Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS Although some reference is made to the general history of research methods at the time, this is not thoroughly developed, and the reader is (unwisely) assumed to know what were the alternatives among which choices could be made. A reader whose prime interest was in criminology would raise other queries. It is to the book's credit that, while offering a persuasive account, it gives rise to many questions that one would like followed up. Anyone interested in criminology, the history of sociology, research methods, or the social factors in the genesis of ideas should read it. University of Sussex JENNIFER PLATT Raymond Boudon, The Unintended Conse- quences of Social Action, London: Macmillan, 1982, viii + 232pp, 25.00. 'Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please . . .' (Marx). In this volume Boudon addresses himself to the strategically vital theme of the unintended individual and social repercussions of in- tentional human actions. Deploying the ideas of classical authors (especially Hobbes and Rousseau to considerable effect) and using examples drawn mainly from the fields of the sociology of education and of the sociology of stratification and mobility he attempts to