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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Non-Religion of the Future, A Sociol... (by Guyau, Jean-Marie)
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
The Rise of David Levinsky; A Novel (by Cahan, Abraham)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 1 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociolog... (by Macdonald, James Ramsay Ed)
Professional ethics and civic morals (by Durkheim, Emile)

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

Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The Non-Religion of the Future, A Sociol... (by Guyau, Jean-Marie)
Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
Catastrophe and Social Change, Based Upo... (by Prince, Samuel Henry)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
The Rise of David Levinsky; A Novel (by Cahan, Abraham)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 1 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociolog... (by Macdonald, James Ramsay Ed)
Professional ethics and civic morals (by Durkheim, Emile)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Beautiful : An Introduction to Psych... (by Lee, Vernon)
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the... (by Freud, Sigmund)
Supreme Personality (by Croft, Delmer Eugene)
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (by Sigmund Freud)
Applied Psychology for Nurses (by Mary F. Porter)
The Interpretation of Dreams (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)
A Mind That Found Itself (by Beers, Clifford Whittingham)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
How to Use Your Mind (by Kitson, Harry D.)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
The Misuse of Mind (by Stephen, Karin)
Cumulative Record (by Skinner, B. F.)

Top 100 books on Economics

Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The History of the Russian Revolution to... (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Economics of Welfare (by Pigou, Arthur Cecil)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
Women and Economics: A Study of the Econ... (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Two Treatises of Government (by Locke, John)
Oeconomicus (by Xenophon, of Athens)
Children of the Slaves (by Graham, Stephen)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (by De Tocqueville, Alexis)

Top 100 books on Government

Ethica (by Baruch Spinoza, Benedictus De Spinoza, Johannes Va...)
Machiavelli (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (by De Tocqueville, Alexis)
The English Constitution (by Sir Frederick Pollock)
Introduction to the Principles of Morals... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The American Democrat : Or, Hints on the... (by James Fenimore Cooper)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
A Plea for Religious Liberty and the Rig... (by George Ticknor Curtis)
The Letters of Junius
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)

Top 100 books on Law

The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
The Fiscal Threat to U.S. Foreign Policy (by Spiers, Ronald I.)
The Idea of a League of Nations; Prolego... (by League of Nations Union)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Sovereign Immunity : Hearing before the ... Volume Part: 1 (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On Indi...)
The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy in Asi... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Inter...)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Roman Law in the Modern World (by Sherman, Charles Phineas)
Amendments to the United States Constitu... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Americans in Eastern Asia; A Critical St... (by Dennett, Tyler)

Top 100 books on Politics

Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
Wealth of Nations, Book 1, The (by Smith, Adam)
The Writings of Thomas Paine Volume Iv (by Paine, Thomas)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Republic (by Plato)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, J. S.)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 1 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
The Dynamics of Culture Change : An Inqu... (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
The Positive School of Criminology (by Ferri, Enrico)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
Education as growth; or, The culture of ...
Anthropology in North America (by John Reed Swanton)
Introduction to Anthropology (by Waitz, Theodore)
Anthropology : An Introduction to the St... (by Edward Burnett Tylor)
Story of Man: from the First Human to Pr... (by Coon, Carleton Stevens)
Kon Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft (by Thor Heyerdahl)
The Races of Man : An Outline of Anthrop... (by Deniker, Joseph)
An Anthropologist's Life in the Twentiet... (by Foster, George Mcclelland)
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth... (by Powell, J. W.)