The Pelican History of Psychology is probably, both in span and latitude, the most comprehensive history of the subject in Print. Too often other histories are anxiously concerned with philosophical concepts, confine themselves to the progress of basic experimental research, and stop short at the 1920s. Dr Thomson, on the other hand, extends his scope outside the main stream of theory, deals with ideas which are specifically psychological, and brings his history far enough forward to discuss the trends which have developed since 1945. His outline of the birth of psychology, in the early nineteenth century, of Darwin's impact, the achievements of the first generation of German, British, French, and American psychologists, and the major theories of Freud, Jung, and the Behaviourists, among others, is clear, logical, and authoritative: but his book extends beyond that.
The development of psychology in the years between 1918 and 1940 is traced by the author of The Psychology of Thinking in all its forms. Psychiatry, child psychology, industrial and social psychology, intelligence and personality testing are among the branches he discusses historically.