Review
A permanent classic, like Locke's Essay and Hume's Treatise.
--John Dewey
The Principles of Psychology is simply a stunning achievement, a triumph of American scholarship...James's versatility, as both writer and thinker, is evident at every point throughout this book. There is nothing out of his range. He provide[s] a lucid, masterful summary of the evidence bearing upon a given topic; [and] consider[s] both the overt and tacit arguments involved in the research..._Principles_ represents the cumulation and synthesis of doctrine and learning; it is hard to imagine anyone else as perfectly positioned to write the definitive text on psychology. (_Psychology Today_ )
Review
_The Principles of Psychology is an American masterpiece which...ought to be read from beginning to end at least once by every person professing to be educated. It is a masterpiece in the classic and total sense --no need of a descriptive or limiting word before or after: not "of observation," or "of prose writing," not more "scientific" than "humanistic." One can point to these and other merits if one is so minded, but the fused substance defies reduction to a list of epithets. No matter how many unexpected qualities are found in it--wit, pathos, imaginative understanding, polemical skill, moral passion, cosmic vision, and sheer learning--the work remains always greater than their sum. (Jacques Barzun, author of _A Stroll with William James (Harper & Row, 1983) )