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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
Wanted, A Young Woman to Do Housework, B... (by Barker, Clara Helene)
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the P... (by William Withington)
Woman : Her Charm and Power (by Downes, Robert P.)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Five Lectures on Blindness (by Kate M. Foley)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)

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

The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
Wanted, A Young Woman to Do Housework, B... (by Barker, Clara Helene)
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the P... (by William Withington)
Woman : Her Charm and Power (by Downes, Robert P.)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Five Lectures on Blindness (by Kate M. Foley)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Secret Places of the Heart (by Wells, Herbert George (H. G.))
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing (by Cutten, George Barton)
Analyzing Character, The New Science of ... (by Blackford, Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
A Young Girl's Diary (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (by Freud, Sigmund)
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (by Sigmund Freud)
The Origin and Nature of Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (by Freud, Sigmund)
Pavlov and His School the Theory of Cond... (by Professor Y. P. Frolov)
Dreams (by Henri Bergson)
The Beautiful : An Introduction to Psych... (by Lee, Vernon)
Practical Lessons in Psychology (by William Otterbein Krohn)

Top 100 books on Economics

Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
Tableau Oeconomique (by François Quesnay)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Evolution of Finance Capitalism (by Edwards, George W.)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)

Top 100 books on Government

Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
Assize of Clarendon (by Henry, King, Ii)
Discourses on the First (by Niccolò Machiavelli)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
General History of Civiclization in Euro... (by M. Guizot)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Code of Hammurabi (by King, Leonard W.)
The Constitution of the United States (by United States. Constitution)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
The Histories of Polybius. Translated fr... (by Polybius)

Top 100 books on Law

Treatise on Law Summa Theologica Questio... (by Thomas Aquinas)
Sacred Text : Common Sense, Volume I (by Paine, Thomas)
Conflict of Laws; Or, Private Internatio... (by Minor, Raleigh C)
Bracton's Note Book. A Collection of Cas... Volume Vol. 1 (by Great Britain. Courts)
William Caxton (by Edward Gordon Duff)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Two Centuries' Growth of American Law, 1... (by Yale Law School)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
Confucianism (by Anonymous)
Codification, Annotation, And Revision o... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Revis...)
The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
Sacred Text : the Age of Reason Volume IV (by Paine, Thomas)
Democracy in America (by Tocqueville, Alexis De)
Codex Hammurabi (by Hammurabi, King of Balonia)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Twentieth Century Political Thought (by Roucek, Joseph. S)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
Ethica (by Baruch Spinoza, Benedictus De Spinoza, Johannes Va...)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
Politics (by Aristotle)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
A Tale of Two Cities (by Dickens, Charles)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Anthropology and Modern Life (by Boas, Franz)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
The Dynamics of Culture Change : An Inqu... (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
Systematic Theology (by Hodge, Charles)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
The Races of Man : An Outline of Anthrop... (by Deniker, Joseph)
Crime, Its Causes and Remedies (by Lombroso, Cesare)
The Gift; Forms and Functions of Exchang... (by Mauss, Marcel)
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
Man Past and Present (by Keane, Augustus Henry)
A Bibliography of the Anthropology of Pe... (by George Amos Dorsey)
Games of the North American Indians (by Culin, Stewart)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
The Human Species (by Armand De Quatrefages De Bréau)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras (by Fabre Dolivet, Antoine)
A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Dif... (by Boole, George)
Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (by Peter Gustav Lejeune-Dirichlet)
A synopsis of elementary results in pure... (by Carr, G. S. (George Shoobridge))
The Elements of Non Euclidean Geometry (by Sommerville, Duncan Mlaren Young)
Investigation of the Laws of Thought (by Boole, George)
Plane Geometry (by George Albert Wentworth)
Bija Ganita; Or, The Algebra of the Hind... (by Bhaskaracarya)
Essays on the Theory of Numbers : I. Con... (by Dedekind, Richard)
A History of Mathematics (by Florian Cajori)
The Elements of the Theory of Algebraic ... (by Reid, Legh Wilber)
Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philoma... (by Moritz, Robert Édouard)
L'Arithmetiqve De Simon Stevin De Brvges (by Stevin, Simon, 1548-1620)
Carl Friedrich Gauss' Untersuchungen übe... (by Hermann Maser, Carl Friedrich Gauss)
Histoire des Nombres et de la Numération... (by Jacomy-Régnier)

Top 100 books on Economics

Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
Tableau Oeconomique (by François Quesnay)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Evolution of Finance Capitalism (by Edwards, George W.)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)