Book reviews

William C. Green and Theodore Karasik (Eds.), Gorbachev and his Generals: The Reform of Soviet Military Doctrine (Westview Press, 1990, 239pp. ISBN 0–8133–7898–2)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, On the Law of Nations (Harvard University Press, 1990)

Peter J. Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, 1944–1949. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London. 1989. ISBN 0–8014–2125–X.

Scalpino, R.A., The Politics of Development: Perspectives on Twentieth‐Century Asia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1989, pp.131)

Sean M. Lynn‐Jones, Steven E. Miller and Stephen van Evera (Eds.), Soviet Military Policy (MIT Press, 1989. £26.95 [cloth]; £13.50 [paperback]).     

Custody decisions in Alabama before and after the abolition of the tender years doctrine

This study investigated the impact of the abolition of the tender years doctrine on custody decisions in divorce cases. This doctrine supported the presumption that the mother is the more suitable parent for young children. In March of 1981, the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama found this doctrine to be unconstitutional. To assess the hypothesis that this ruling had a significant effect on custodyrelated decisions, a sample of court records for divorce cases in an Alabama county was examined as representative of the state on a number of key variables. Overall, no significant differences were found on indicator variables for the comparisons before and after the ruling. There was neither an increase in custody grants to fathers nor an increase in custody requests by fathers.     

The gas chromatographic determination of carbophos in cadaveric material

The authors developed a method of malathion insecticide determination in the cadaveric material (blood and wall of the stomach) including extraction of 5 ml of blood (5 g of fragmented tissue of stomach wall) by hexan; preparative chromatographic purification of extract on silicagel layer L 5/40 mkm in hexan-diethyl ether system 10:2; Gas-liquid chromatographic investigation on column with 5% SE-30 and 5% XE-60 (Chromatograph "Colour-106" with thermionic detector). This method makes it possible to detect 72-76% of malathion added.     

Religious influence on parental attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment

Certain Biblical passages if interpreted literally can be understood as advocating the use of corporal punishment in disciplining children. The purpose of this research was to determine if persons affiliated with religious denominations which emphasized a literal belief in the Bible would demonstrate less appropriate attitudes with regard to discipline than their counterparts who were affiliated with religious denominations which do not subscribe to a literal interpretation of the Bible. The sample consisted of 881 persons who were members of denominations classified as literal or nonliteral believers. Statistically significant differences were noted on the Physical Punishment Scale of the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory with persons, regardless of gender or their level of education, who were members of churches subscribing to a literal belief in the Bible preferring the use of corporal punishment over alternate methods of discipline as compared to their nonliteral counterparts.