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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
The Non-Religion of the Future, A Sociol... (by Guyau, Jean-Marie)
How to Be Happy Though Married. Being a ... (by Hardy, Edward John)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)

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 Non-Religion of the Future, A Sociol... (by Guyau, Jean-Marie)
How to Be Happy Though Married. Being a ... (by Hardy, Edward John)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
An Account of the War Customs of the Osa... (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Sociology and Psychology of Terroris... (by Hudson, Rex A.)
The Psychology of Nations, A Contributio... (by Partridge, G. E. (George Everett))
The Secret Places of the Heart (by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George))
Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
Dora an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (by Sigmund Freud)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Dream Psychology : Psychoanalysis for Be... (by Sigmund Freud)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Charles Mackay)
The Psychology of Arithmetic (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
Cumulative Record (by Skinner, B. F.)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)

Top 100 books on Economics

The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Tableau Oeconomique (by François Quesnay)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Mackay, Charles)
The History of the Russian Revolution to... (by Trotsky, Leon)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)
The People of the Abyss (by Jack London)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)

Top 100 books on Government

Communist Manifesto, The (by Marx, Karl)
The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Two Treatises of Government (by Locke, John)
Declaration of Colonial Rights : Resolut...
The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts : Rep... (by Massachusetts)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
Discourses Concerning Government Volume 1 (by Sidney, Algernon)
Robert's Rules of Order Pocket Manual of... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
Between Past and Future : Six Exercises ... (by Hannah Arendt)
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)

Top 100 books on Law

Codification, Annotation, And Revision o... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Revis...)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary : Comprisi... (by Shumaker, Walter A)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
The United States Patent Law. Instructio... (by Munn and Company (New York, N. Y.))
The spirit of the laws; Volume: 11 (by Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de)
Bracton's Note Book. A Collection of Cas... Volume Vol. 1 (by Great Britain. Courts)
Lectures on Jurisprudence (by Robert Campbell)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Report to Congress in Accordance with 35... (by United States Department of the Treasury)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)

Top 100 books on Politics

Public opinion (by Lippmann, Walter)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The Human Species (by Armand De Quatrefages De Bréau)
Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices (by Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston))
The Journal of Negro History ; Volume 1 (by Association for the Study of Negro Life and Histor...)
The Positive School of Criminology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Adolescence : Its Psychology and Its Rel... Volume Vol. 1 (by Hall, Granville Stanley)
The Dynamics of Culture Change : An Inqu... (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
Traditions of the Tinguian; A Study in P... (by Cole, Fay Cooper)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 06 Part 0... Volume Vol. 06 Part 04 (by American Anthropological Association)
Man and Abnormal Man, Including a Study ... (by MacDonald, Arthur, 1856-1936)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
Growing up in New Guinea; A Comparative ... (by Mead, Margaret)
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

Timaeus (by Plato)
Traité des Substitutions et des Équation... (by Jordan, Camille)
Essays on the Theory of Numbers : I. Con... (by Dedekind, Richard)
The Elements of Euclid : The Errors by W... (by Euclid)
Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philoma... (by Moritz, Robert Édouard)
The Construction of the Wonderful Canon ... (by Napier, John)
The Number Concept; Its Origin and Devel... (by Conant, Levi Leonard)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Godfrey Harold Hardy)
The Elements of the Theory of Algebraic ... (by Reid, Legh Wilber)
History of Modern Mathematics (by Smith, David Eugene)
Carl Friedrich Gauss' Untersuchungen übe... (by Hermann Maser, Carl Friedrich Gauss)
Histoire des Nombres et de la Numération... (by Jacomy-Régnier)
Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (by Peter Gustav Lejeune-Dirichlet)
A New Era of Thought (by Hinton, Charles Howard)
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (by Russell, Bertrand)

Top 100 books on Economics

The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Tableau Oeconomique (by François Quesnay)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Mackay, Charles)
The History of the Russian Revolution to... (by Trotsky, Leon)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)
The People of the Abyss (by Jack London)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)