SOURCE: "Graham Wallas and the Sociopsychological Basis of Politics and Social Reconstruction," in An Introduction to the History of Sociology, University of Chicago Press, 1948, pp. 696-716.

In the following essay, Barnes analyzes Wallas's theory of political psychology as presented in his Human Nature in Politics, The Great Society, and Our Social Heritage.

I. the Nature and Scope of the Writings of Graham Wallas

An exceedingly suggestive attempt by an Englishman to apply sociology and psychology to the treatment of public problems is to be found in the works of Graham Wallas (1858-1932), late professor of political science in the University of London. Wallas, like Bagehot, was a happy combination of the student and the practical man of affairs—something that is distressingly rare in America but need not be so if Wallas' suggestions are carried out in the near future. This healthy juncture of the scholar and the...