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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
How to Be Happy Though Married. Being a ... (by Hardy, Edward John)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Rise of David Levinsky; A Novel (by Cahan, Abraham)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociolog... (by Macdonald, James Ramsay Ed)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)

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

Social Statistics; Or, Order, Abridged a... (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
How to Be Happy Though Married. Being a ... (by Hardy, Edward John)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
Siouan Sociology: a Posthumous Paper Volume: 15th 1893-1894
Applied Eugenics (by Roswell Hill Johnson)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Rise of David Levinsky; A Novel (by Cahan, Abraham)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Eugenics Marriage and Birth Control Prac... (by William Josephus Robinson)
Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociolog... (by Macdonald, James Ramsay Ed)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)

Top 100 books on Psychology

How to Use Your Mind (by Kitson, Harry D.)
Animal Intelligence : Experimental Studi... (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
Habit (by James, William)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Buddhist Psychology; An Inquiry into the... (by Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys)
The Elements of Psychology (by Edward Lee Thorndike)
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social P... (by William Isaac Thomas)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)
Gestalt Psychology a Survey of Facts and... (by George W. Hartmann)
Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
The Psychology of Nations, A Contributio... (by Partridge, G. E. (George Everett))
Supreme Personality (by Croft, Delmer Eugene)
Behavior an Introduction to Comparative ... (by John B. Watson)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovak... (by Josef Korbel)
The Morality of Capitalism
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Rober... (by Ricardo, David)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Progress and Poverty; an Inquiry Into th... (by George, Henry, 1839-1897)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
On Liberty (by John Stuart Mill)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Two Treatises of Government (by Locke, John)
Minorities Versus Majorities (by Goldman, Emma)

Top 100 books on Government

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Laws (by Plato)
The Works of Walter Moyle: None of which... (by Walter Moyle, Thomas Sergeant)
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (by Adam Ferguson)
Declaration of Taking up Arms (by Second Continental Congress)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
An Introduction to the Principles of Mor... (by Bentham, Jeremy)
The Letters of Junius
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
General History of Civiclization in Euro... (by M. Guizot)
Why wars come; or, Forms of government a... (by Niblack, Albert Parker)
The moral crusader, William Lloyd Garris... (by Smith, Goldwin)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Of the Law of Nature and Nations : Eight... (by Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr Von)

Top 100 books on Law

The United States Patent Law. Instructio... (by Munn and Company (New York, N. Y.))
William Caxton (by Edward Gordon Duff)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
Moses Whitmire, Trustee for the Freedmen... (by United States. Department of Justice.)
Magna Carta (by Unknown)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Immigration Laws and Regulations. August... (by United States. Laws, Statutes, Etc)
The Case of the Cherokee Nation against ... (by Cherokee Nation)
Constitution and Act of Incorporation of... (by Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition o...)
The Nature of the Judicial Process (by Benjamin N. Cardozo)
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...
North American Free-Trade Agreement (Naf... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Ways ...)
Changing Boundaries of Law Enforcement :... (by Mcdonald, William F.)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Roman Law in the Modern World (by Sherman, Charles Phineas)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Gettysburg Address (by Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Review of the management of our affairs ... (by China, China. Appendix. - History & Politics.)
Uncle Tom's cabin : or, Life among the l... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Federalist Papers, The (by Hamilton, Alexander)
Public Opinion (by Lippmann, Walter)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
China at the Peace Conference, August 19... (by Far Eastern Political Science Review)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

The History of Mankind Volume: v.3 (by Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904)
The Golden Bough : A Study in Magic and ... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (by Lowie, Robert Harry)
The Scope of Social Anthropology; A Lect... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
The Gift; Forms and Functions of Exchang... (by Mauss, Marcel)
An Anthropologist at Work; Writings of R... (by Benedict, Ruth)
The Witch Cult in Western Europe (by Murray, Margaret Alice)
Systematic Theology (by Hodge, Charles)
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)
Public Health Publication : World Health... (by Margaret Mead)
The Journal of the Anthropological Insti... (by Royal Anthropological Institute)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 1 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)