Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing - eBooks | Read eBooks online

A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Civic Education : Sociological Foundatio... (by David Snedden)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Li... (by Durkheim, Emile)
A Theology for the Social Gospel (by Walter Rauschenbusch)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)

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

Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Civic Education : Sociological Foundatio... (by David Snedden)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Li... (by Durkheim, Emile)
A Theology for the Social Gospel (by Walter Rauschenbusch)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
A Text-Book of Sociology (by James Quayle Dealey)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)
Applied Psychology for Nurses (by Mary F. Porter)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
The Elements of Psychology (by Edward Lee Thorndike)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (by James, William)
On dreams (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Origin and Nature of the Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social P... (by William Isaac Thomas)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psych... (by American Psychological Association)
A Young Girl's Diary (by Freud, Sigmund)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
Habit (by James, William)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Servile State (by Belloc, Hilaire)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 (by Bellamy, Edward)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
Classless Capitalism (by Stern, Frederick Martin.)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Rober... (by Ricardo, David)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
The Acquisitive Society (by Tawney, Richard Henry)
Democracy in America I (by Tocqueville, Alexis de)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)

Top 100 books on Government

The Letters of Junius
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)
Between Past and Future : Six Exercises ... (by Hannah Arendt)
Deposition of Air Pollutants to the Grea... (by Allan, Mary Ann)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the... (by Marquis De Lafayette)
The General History of England, Both Ecc... (by Tyrrell, James)
The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
Plato redivivus : or, A dialogue concern... (by Neville, Henry)
Laws (by Plato)
Declaration of Colonial Rights : Resolut...
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Histories of Polybius. Translated fr... (by Polybius)

Top 100 books on Law

Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall ... (by Melville, Herman)
Bank Secrecy Act : Implementation of the... (by Bonner, Robert C.)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
Crs Report for Congress Received through... (by Doyle, Charles)
The Wealth Of Nations (by Adam_Smith)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
Translation of the Law of Criminal Proce... (by Cuba)
Constitution and Act of Incorporation of... (by Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition o...)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Two Centuries' Growth of American Law, 1... (by Yale Law School)
Crime and Punishment (by Doestoevski, Feodor)
Changing Boundaries of Law Enforcement :... (by Mcdonald, William F.)
Politics (by Aristotle)

Top 100 books on Politics

Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Apology of Socrates, The (by Plato)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
On War (by Von Clausewitz, Carl)
The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (by Aristotle, Frank Hesketh Peters)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (by Henry, Patrick)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
The Republic (by Plato)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

American Anthropologist : Vol. 3 Volume Vol. 3 (by American Anthropological Association)
African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald))
The Journal of Negro History ; Volume 1 (by Association for the Study of Negro Life and Histor...)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
Adolescence : Its Psychology and Its Rel... Volume Vol. 1 (by Hall, Granville Stanley)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
The Positive School of Criminology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Journal of Ethnobiology. Volume: v. 16-17 1996-97 (by Center for Western Studies (Flagstaff, Ariz.))
Social structure (by Murdock, George Peter)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
Influences of Geographic Environment of ... (by Semple, Ellen Churchill)
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological... (by Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ire...)
The Genetic Relationship of the North Am... (by Radin, Paul)
Public Health Publication : World Health... (by Margaret Mead)