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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)

Organizing Relationships: A Sociology Exhibit

Many disciplines beyond Sociology, such as Mathematics and Psychology and Economics, are utilized in the Social Sciences. In our Collections under these and other topics, contain hundreds of titles by writers and theorists who have dedicated to their lives to the study of human society. Featured books in the following collections include Herbert Spencer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Talcott Parsons and David Emile Durkheim.

Sociology of Past Power Structures

Throughout history, all sub-disciplines of Sociology, as well and religious and government groups have been studied and experimented with different methods of social organization of population. Sometimes, these attempts at social definitions and control have been tempered, but at other times, rigid – some men have use groups for their own gain. Ultimately, however, if social organization is to be implemented, it has to be understood.

From the beginning of time, both men and animals have used verbal and non-verbal cues and strategies to enforce hierarchy. With chimpanzees, it is the Alpha Male. With men: Domesday Books, mathematics and accounting, psychology and linguistics. The word “organization” is derived from the Greek word organon, which means "organ." Therefore, studies of how groups of people (with a common goal) structure themselves, is the study of mankind and its relationships as a collective.

The Domesday Book, created under the reign of William the Conqueror, has been studied to understand the role of documentation in asserting authority and also to facilitate taxation. According to Young Folks’ History of England, William the Conqueror was a Norman who conquered England. In 1086, he ordered the documentation of land, livestock and taxes under the administration of the previous rulers, to find out what would be transferred over to Norman rule. Whatever was recorded in the Domesday book could not be appealed. The data that William the Conqueror collected into the Domesday book revealed his tendency for control. In the book titled, William the Conqueror, it is said that “William would not set...over any part of his dominions before his time, and it was his policy to keep his children dependent on him. While he enriched his brothers, he did not give the smallest scrap of the spoils of England to his sons” (William the Conqueror, World Heritage Encyclopedia). Robert, his son, was angry about this and fought his father in a battle, but later asked for his pardon. Today, the Domesday Books is considered an artifact of sociological research. Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886 examines how this document changed the course of history in the United Kingdom (Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886, Edward P. Dove).

Debates in Defining Sociology

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet was a 19th-Century Belgian mathematician, statistician and sociologist who introduced statistical methods into the social sciences. He assigned variables to the complexity of social phenomena, in order to measure the statistical laws underlying crime, marriage or suicide rates. Other scientists thought his ideas were controversial because it contradicted freedom of choice (“Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

The author of Adolphe Quetelet, A Statistician discusses Auguste Comte as another researcher of social physics and sociology, but that Quetelet invented the method of investigation for “social physics” (Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician, Frank Hamilton Hawkins). So Comte reinvented the term sociologie (sociology) to differentiate it from Quetelet’s collection of statistics (“Adolphe Quetelet,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Comte believed that there was an order of nature, not of man, which could be scientifically understood by unifying history, psychology and economics. Social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, or using a broader philosophy that methodologically orders scientific observations (Outlines of Sociology, Lester Frank Ward). In this book, Ward writes Comte’s use of the term “hierarchy” did not imply subordination. “There is genetic affiliation without subordination. The more complex and less exact sciences may be regarded as the children of the more simple and exact ones, but between parent and offspring there is no difference or rank.” Additionally, he wrote that Comte “laid the foundations for understanding the more complex sciences by acquainting himself with the simpler ones upon which the other sciences successively rest” (Outlines of Sociology, Lester Frank Ward). Other social scientists like Karl Marx also mixed scientific methods to measure social impacts of industrialization occurring in Europe, documented in his work Wage Labour and Capital ("Wage Labour and Capital," Karl Marx).

Studying Social Life

David Émile Durkheim was a 19th century French sociologist who believed that sociology should study phenomena attributed to society at large, rather than being limited to the specific actions of individuals. Barbara Anne Mendheim however, applied sociology differently in The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom. She writes that people gain knowledge of the social world by identifying typicality and finding language to order their social experience. For example, girls understand that being a girl means being personally relevant and intimate with other people. Boys understand being a boy through being powerful and competent in the world (The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom, Barbara Anne Mendheim). However, in Woman: Her Charm and Power, Robert Downes uses sociological methods to explore how women in Egyptian and Iranian society were given opportunity for education and in leadership. But in Roman culture, women’s roles were to birth children. Women’s positions in society are influenced by the dominant culture’s definition of their functions and role in society (Woman: Her Charm and Power, Robert Downes).

Sociology has also been used to study group relations. Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism discusses how entrepreneurs used religion to spread the system of capitalism. By tapping into religious belief systems, he proffered, people could work toward their profit making motive.

Works Cited

"August Compte." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

“David Émile Durkheim.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"Domesday Book." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Dove, P. Edward. "Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read at the Meetings of the Domesday Commemoration 1886." London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1886.

Downes, Robert. Woman: Her Charm and Power. London: The Epworth Press, 1900.

Hawkins, Frank Hamilton. Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician. New York: Columbia University Press, 1877.

“Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Marx, Karl. "Wage Labour and Capital." Neue Rheinische Zeitung, April 1849. Reproduced: World Public Library, 2002. Web.

Mendheim, Barbara Anne. The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarten-First Grade Classroom. Diss. University of Florida, 1979.

“Norman People.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"Sociology." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Ward, Lester Frank. Outlines of Sociology. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1921.

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Scribner, 1930

“William the Conqueror.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Yonge, Charlotte Mary. Young Folks’ History of England. Boston: Estes and Lauriet, 1879.

Sociology Collections

"Organizing Relationships: A Sociology Exhibit" demonstrates how sociological methods have been used to study the configuration of power, through documentation, analysis of order, and social effects. Sociology brings together different methods of thinking, to understand the complexity of society more accurately, and why we should always be vigilant of power.

Learn more about how the discipline of sociology is used, in these collections:

Top 100 books on Sociology

Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)

Top 100 books on Psychology

A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
The Misuse of Mind (by Stephen, Karin)
Psychotherapy (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of th... (by Bergson, Henri)
How to Use Your Mind (by Kitson, Harry D.)
The Freedom of Life (by Call, Annie Payson)
Psychologie de L'Éducation (by Gustave Le Bon)
Dreams (by Henri Bergson)
Nerves and Common Sense (by Call, Annie Payson)
Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery (by Lawrence, Robert Means)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)
The Psychology of Arithmetic (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
The Interpretation of Dreams (by Freud, Sigmund)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
Profits, Wages, and Prices (by David Friday)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
Minorities Versus Majorities (by Goldman, Emma)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Trade Unions : An Appeal to the Work... (by Robert Somers)
Life of Adam Smith (by Rae, John)
The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
The People of the Abyss (by Jack London)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Evolution of Finance Capitalism (by Edwards, George W.)

Top 100 books on Government

Introduction to the Principles of Morals... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
Assize of Arms
The Constitution of the United States (by United States. Constitution)
Discourse on Inequality (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
The Histories of Polybius. Translated fr... (by Polybius)
The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts : Rep... (by Massachusetts)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Declaration of Rights of the Stamp A... (by Stamp Act Congress)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535)
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (by Adam Ferguson)
The Commonwealth of Oceana (by Harrington, James)

Top 100 books on Law

The Case of the Cherokee Nation against ... (by Cherokee Nation)
Report on the Right of the Government of... (by United States. Division of Insular Affairs)
The Idea of a League of Nations; Prolego... (by League of Nations Union)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The French Civil Code (As Amended up to ... (by Eric Blackwood Wright, France)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The United States' Constitution (by Fathers, Founding)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall ... (by Melville, Herman)
Marrow of Tradition, The (by Chesnutt, Charles Waddell)
Americans in Eastern Asia; A Critical St... (by Dennett, Tyler)
Laws, Decisions, And Regulations Affecti... (by United States)

Top 100 books on Politics

Public opinion (by Lippmann, Walter)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
Capital : A Critique of Political Econom... (by Marx, Karl)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
Reflections on the Revolution in France (by Burke, Edmund)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
The Human Species (by Armand De Quatrefages De Bréau)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 4 Volume Vol. 4 (by American Anthropological Association)
Story of Man: from the First Human to Pr... (by Coon, Carleton Stevens)
Crime, Its Causes and Remedies (by Lombroso, Cesare)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 1 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
General Anthropology (by Boas, Franz)
Ethnography of Ancient India (by Shafer, Robert)
Bulletin (by United States Bureau of Labor)
American Anthropologist (by American Anthropological Association)
Man from the Farthest Past : Volume 7 (by Bishop, Carl Whiting)
Education as growth; or, The culture of ...
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Frederick Webb Hodge, Ethnologist : Tran... (by Hodge, Frederick Webb)