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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Folkways (by Sumner, William Graham)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
The American Journal of Sociology (by University of Chicago)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
The Evolution of the Country Community :... (by Wilson, Warren Hugh)
Manifesto of the Communist Party (by Marx, Karl)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Five Lectures on Blindness (by Kate M. Foley)
Outlines of sociology (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)

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

Folkways (by Sumner, William Graham)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
The American Journal of Sociology (by University of Chicago)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
The Evolution of the Country Community :... (by Wilson, Warren Hugh)
Manifesto of the Communist Party (by Marx, Karl)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Five Lectures on Blindness (by Kate M. Foley)
Outlines of sociology (by Ward, Lester Frank)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
What a Young Woman Ought to Know (by Wood-Allen, Mary)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Psychology from the Standpoint of a Beha... (by Watson, John B. (John Broadus))
Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory (by Freud, Sigmund)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)
Buddhist Psychology; An Inquiry into the... (by Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys)
Pavlov and His School the Theory of Cond... (by Professor Y. P. Frolov)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
The Sociology and Psychology of Terroris... (by Hudson, Rex A.)
Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing (by Cutten, George Barton)
The Freedom of Life (by Call, Annie Payson)
The Origin and Nature of Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
Dream Psychology : Psychoanalysis for Be... (by Sigmund Freud)
History of Psychology; A Sketch and an I... (by Baldwin, James Mark)
Mind and Motion and Monism (by Romanes, George John)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Alfred Weber's Theory of the Location of... (by Weber, Alfred)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
Children of the Slaves (by Graham, Stephen)
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Rober... (by Ricardo, David)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 (by Bellamy, Edward)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Servile State (by Belloc, Hilaire)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Poverty and Its Vicious Circles (by Hurry, Jamieson Boyd)

Top 100 books on Government

The English Constitution (by Sir Frederick Pollock)
Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches :... (by Lincoln, Abraham)
Of the Law of Nature and Nations : Eight... (by Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr Von)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)
Britton (by Francis Morgan Nichols)
Declaration of Colonial Rights : Resolut...
The Republic, Score Plato Rep (by Plato)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
The General History of England, Both Ecc... (by Tyrrell, James)
Laws (by Plato)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Chronological Tables of the Chinese Dyna... (by E. R. Lyman, Tso-Ting Wang, Theodore Wong)

Top 100 books on Law

The Fiscal Threat to U.S. Foreign Policy (by Spiers, Ronald I.)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
Columbia Law Review: Scope of Inquiry on... Volume 21
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
Treatise on Law Summa Theologica Questio... (by Thomas Aquinas)
John King of England (by John T Appledy)
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Codex Hammurabi (by Hammurabi, King of Balonia)
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of... (by Department of National Security)
Americans in Eastern Asia; A Critical St... (by Dennett, Tyler)
Magna Carta (by Unknown)
Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy, ... (by Department of Defense)

Top 100 books on Politics

Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (by Tressell, Robert)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (by Henry, Patrick)
Reflections on the Revolution in France (by Burke, Edmund)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
Uncle Tom's cabin : or, Life among the l... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
The Gettysburg Address (by Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865)
Twentieth Century Political Thought (by Roucek, Joseph. S)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Systematic Theology : Index Volume index (by Hodge, Charles)
Story of Man: from the First Human to Pr... (by Coon, Carleton Stevens)
The History of Mankind (by Ratzel, Friedrich)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
The Study of Man: An Introduction (by Linton, Ralph)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Modern Theories of Criminality (by Bernaldo De Quiros, Constancio)
Anthropology in North America (by John Reed Swanton)
The Human Species (by Armand De Quatrefages De Bréau)
Pedagogical Anthropology (by Montessori, Maria)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)