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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Negro in Chicago : a study of race r... (by Chicago Commission on Race Relations)
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
A Far Country (by Churchill, Winston)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)

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

Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (by Mannheim, Karl)
A Study of Siouan Cults (by Dorsey, James Owen)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Negro in Chicago : a study of race r... (by Chicago Commission on Race Relations)
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects (by Guernsey, Henry N. (Henry Newell))
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
A Far Country (by Churchill, Winston)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Psychological Types or the Psychology of... (by C. G. Jung)
Behavior an Introduction to Comparative ... (by John B. Watson)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)
Psychology and Social Sanity (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Quit Your Worrying! (by George Wharton James)
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psych... (by American Psychological Association)
Malignant Self Love (by Vaknin, Sam)
Studies in the Psychology of Sex. V.3, 1... (by Havelock Ellis)
The Psychology of Nations, A Contributio... (by Partridge, G. E. (George Everett))
Essays in Radical Empiricism (by James, William)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (by James, William)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
Buddhist Psychology; An Inquiry into the... (by Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys)
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (by Freud, Sigmund)
Totem and Taboo (by Freud, Sigmund)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
Progress and Poverty; an Inquiry Into th... (by George, Henry, 1839-1897)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Life of Adam Smith (by Rae, John)
Conquest of bread, The (by Kropotkin, Peter)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Government

The Mayflower Compact
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
The Letters of Junius
Select Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero (by Marcus Tullius Cicero)
The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches :... (by Lincoln, Abraham)
The Commonwealth of Oceana (by Harrington, James)
The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
The Petition of Right (by Relf, Frances Helen)
General History of Civiclization in Euro... (by M. Guizot)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
Polybii Historiae (by Polybius)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)

Top 100 books on Law

Lectures on Jurisprudence (by Robert Campbell)
The Usa Patriot Act: A Legal Analysis (by Doyle, Charles)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
The Relations between the Laws of Babylo... (by Johns, Claude Hermann Walter)
Politics (by Aristotle)
The Case of the Cherokee Nation against ... (by Cherokee Nation)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
The French Civil Code (As Amended up to ... (by Eric Blackwood Wright, France)
William Caxton (by Edward Gordon Duff)
Institutes of the Laws of England : Or a... Volume Vol. 6 (by Coke, Edward, Sir)
Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)
Terrorism, Asylum Issues, And U.S. Immig... (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On the ...)
The spirit of the laws; Volume: 11 (by Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de)
Report to Congress in Accordance with 35... (by United States Department of the Treasury)

Top 100 books on Politics

The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
Chronological Tables of the Chinese Dyna... (by E. R. Lyman, Tso-Ting Wang, Theodore Wong)
The Iron Heel (by London, Jack)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
The Art of War (by Henri Jomini)
Communist Manifesto, The (by Marx, Karl)
The Gettysburg Address (by Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Soci... (by Corey, Lewis)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
Crime, Its Causes and Remedies (by Lombroso, Cesare)
Introduction to Anthropology (by Waitz, Theodore)
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices (by Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston))
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
The Journal of Negro History ; Volume 1 (by Association for the Study of Negro Life and Histor...)
Games of the North American Indians (by Culin, Stewart)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

A History of Mathematics (by Florian Cajori)
Algebra
Projective Geometry (by Mathews, George Ballard)
The First Six Books of the Elements of E... (by Euclides)
Ptolemy's Cataloque of Stars; A Revision... (by Ptolemy)
The Elements of Euclid : The Errors by W... (by Euclid)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Hardy, Godfrey Harold)
Deductive Logic (by Stock, St. George)
A synopsis of elementary results in pure... (by Carr, G. S. (George Shoobridge))
Symbolic Logic and Its Applications (by John Venn)
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought ... (by Boole, George)
Theory of the Motion of the Heavenly Bod... (by Gauss, Karl Friedrich)
Logic, Deductive and Inductive (by Carveth Read)
The Alphabet of Economic Science (by Philip Henry Wicksteed)
Calcul des Probabilités. Lecons Professé... (by Poincaré, Henri)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Causes of Poverty (by Mccarthy, Callaghan)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
Progress and Poverty; an Inquiry Into th... (by George, Henry, 1839-1897)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Life of Adam Smith (by Rae, John)
Conquest of bread, The (by Kropotkin, Peter)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)