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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
Homo-Culture; Or, The Improvement of Off... (by Holbrook, Martin Luther)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The American Journal of Sociology (by University of Chicago)
Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas. (by Tilak, Bal Gangadhar)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)

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

Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
Homo-Culture; Or, The Improvement of Off... (by Holbrook, Martin Luther)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The American Journal of Sociology (by University of Chicago)
Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas. (by Tilak, Bal Gangadhar)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Gestalt Psychology a Survey of Facts and... (by George W. Hartmann)
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (by Sigmund Freud)
Behavior an Introduction to Comparative ... (by John B. Watson)
The Achievements of Luther Trant (by Balmer, Edwin)
The Psychology of Arithmetic (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
Buddhist Psychology; An Inquiry into the... (by Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys)
The Origin and Nature of the Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
Why Worry? (by George Lincoln Walton)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psych... (by American Psychological Association)
Essays in Radical Empiricism (by James, William)
The Misuse of Mind (by Stephen, Karin)
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the... (by Freud, Sigmund)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)
Initiative Psychic Energy (by Hilton, Warren)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Life of Adam Smith (by Rae, John)
A synopsis of the first three books of J... (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Effects of the Corn Laws (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Poverty of Philosophy (by Marx, Karl)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)

Top 100 books on Government

Plato redivivus : or, A dialogue concern... (by Neville, Henry)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
On Liberty (by Winthrop, John)
The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
Communist Manifesto, The (by Marx, Karl)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
The Constitutional Documents of the Puri... (by Gardiner, Samuel Rawson)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches :... (by Lincoln, Abraham)
The Declaration of Arbroath
Discourses Concerning Government Volume 1 (by Sidney, Algernon)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
The English Constitution (by Sir Frederick Pollock)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)

Top 100 books on Law

The Foreign Relation of China: A History... (by Pao, Ming-Chien)
Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)
Sacred Text : the Age of Reason Volume IV (by Paine, Thomas)
The Wealth Of Nations (by Adam_Smith)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort;... Volume Year 1970 (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Constitution of the New-England Anti-Sla... (by Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Meditations, The (by Marcus Aurelius)
Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Extraterritorial Cases, Including the De... Volume Vol. 1 (by United States. Court for China)
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary : Comprisi... (by Shumaker, Walter A)
Report to Congress in Accordance with 35... (by United States Department of the Treasury)
Crime and Custom in Savage Society (by Malinowski, Bronislaw, 1884-1942)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Republic (by Plato)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (by Henry, Patrick)
On War (by Von Clausewitz, Carl)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
The Souls of Black Folk (by Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt)
The Art of War (by Henri Jomini)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Democracy in America (by Alexis De Tocqueville)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Ethnography of Ancient India (by Shafer, Robert)
Education as growth; or, The culture of ...
An Anthropologist's Life in the Twentiet... (by Foster, George Mcclelland)
Anthropology : An Introduction to the St... (by Edward Burnett Tylor)
Man Past and Present (by Keane, Augustus Henry)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
The Witch Cult in Western Europe (by Murray, Margaret Alice)
The Golden Bough Volume Xii : A Study in... (by Frazer, Sir James George)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 21 Volume Vol. 21 (by American Anthropological Association)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 3 Volume Vol. 3 (by American Anthropological Association)
Anthropology in North America (by John Reed Swanton)
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)
Ancient Art and Ritual (by Jane Ellen Harrison)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

Symbolic Logic: Part I, Elementary (by Lewis Carroll)
Mecanique Analytique (by Lagrange, J. L. (Joseph Louis))
Investigation of the Laws of Thought (by Boole, George)
The Elements of Non Euclidean Geometry (by Sommerville, Duncan Mlaren Young)
Mecanique Analytique (by Lagrange, J. L. (Joseph Louis))
Problemas de Geometrie et D'Hydraulique (by Da Vinci, Leonardo)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Godfrey Harold Hardy)
The Algebra of Logic (by Couturat, Louis)
A synopsis of elementary results in pure... (by Carr, G. S. (George Shoobridge))
An Introduction to Mathematics (by Alfred North Whitehead)
Histoire des Nombres et de la Numération... (by Jacomy-Régnier)
Principia Mathematica (by Whitehead, Alfred North)
Symbolic Logic (by John Venn)
The Works of Archimedes (by Archimedes)
Problems in Differential Calculus. Suppl... (by Byerly, William Elwood)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Life of Adam Smith (by Rae, John)
A synopsis of the first three books of J... (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Effects of the Corn Laws (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Poverty of Philosophy (by Marx, Karl)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)