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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 1 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
Manifesto of the Communist Party (by Marx, Karl)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Pure Sociology : A Treatise on the Origi... (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Outlines of sociology (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)

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

Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 1 (by Spencer, Herbert)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician (by Hankins, Frank Hamilton)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
Manifesto of the Communist Party (by Marx, Karl)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Pure Sociology : A Treatise on the Origi... (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Outlines of sociology (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Dora an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (by Sigmund Freud)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
Psychology and Religion West and East (by C. G. Jung)
Applied Psychology for Nurses (by Mary F. Porter)
A Young Girl's Diary (by Freud, Sigmund)
Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery (by Lawrence, Robert Means)
The Psychology of Peoples (by Le Bon, Gustave)
Essays in Radical Empiricism (by James, William)
Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism (by Silberer, Herbert)
Psychology from the Standpoint of a Beha... (by Watson, John B. (John Broadus))
The Psychology of Management: The Functi... (by Lillian Moller Gilbreth)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Practical Lessons in Psychology (by William Otterbein Krohn)

Top 100 books on Economics

Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Poverty of Philosophy (by Marx, Karl)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
In Praise of Poverty
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Government

The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (by De Tocqueville, Alexis)
The Histories of Polybius. Translated fr... (by Polybius)
The English Constitution (by Sir Frederick Pollock)
A Discourse of Government with Relation ... (by Fletcher, Andrew)
Japan and Her Destiny My Struggle for Pe... (by Mamoru Shigemitsu)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deli... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
The Works of Aristotle : Volume 12 (by Aristotle)
The Commonwealth of Oceana (by Harrington, James)
1581 : The Dutch Declaration of Independ... (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
Institutes of Natural Law : Being the Su... Volume Vol. 1 (by Rutherforth, T., Thomas)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)

Top 100 books on Law

Principles of English Law : Founded on B... (by Campbell, Robert)
Report on the Right of the Government of... (by United States. Division of Insular Affairs)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
A Law Dictionary : Adapted to the Consti... (by Bouvier, John)
The Idea of a League of Nations; Prolego... (by League of Nations Union)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
Two Centuries' Growth of American Law, 1... (by Yale Law School)
Introduction to Roman Law (by Hadley, James)
Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort;... Volume Year 1970 (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Marrow of Tradition, The (by Chesnutt, Charles Waddell)
Terrorism, Asylum Issues, And U.S. Immig... (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On the ...)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Soci... (by Corey, Lewis)
The Republic (by Plato)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
China at the Peace Conference, August 19... (by Far Eastern Political Science Review)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
The History of the Russian Revolution Vo... (by Leon Trotsky)
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
Wealth of Nations, Book 1, The (by Smith, Adam)
The Origin of the Family, Private Proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Handbook of the Alabama Anthropological ... (by Alabama Anthropological Society, Montgomery.)
The Scope of Social Anthropology; A Lect... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
The Journal of Negro History ; Volume 1 (by Association for the Study of Negro Life and Histor...)
Education as growth; or, The culture of ...
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
The races of man, and their geographical... (by Peschel, Oscar)
The History of Mankind Volume: v.3 (by Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 3 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
Ethnography of Ancient India (by Shafer, Robert)
Anthropology in North America (by John Reed Swanton)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Early Civilization : An Introduction to ... (by Alexander A. Goldenweiser)