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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
The Social System (by Parsons, Talcott)
Socialism (Le Socialisme) (by Durkheim, Emile)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)

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

The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Democratic Ideals and Reality : A Study ... (by Halford John Mackinder)
Society, Its Origin and Development (by Rowe, Henry Kalloch)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
The Social System (by Parsons, Talcott)
Socialism (Le Socialisme) (by Durkheim, Emile)
The Christian Faith and Human Relations ... (by Bitting, William Coleman)
The School as a Social Institution; An I... (by Robbins, Charles Leonidas)
Whirligigs (by Henry, O.)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Malignant Self Love (by Vaknin, Sam)
The Psychology of Beauty (by Ethel Dench Puffer)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Psychotherapy (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
The Psychology of Arithmetic (by Thorndike, Edward Lee)
The Psychology of Peoples (by Le Bon, Gustave)
The Sociology and Psychology of Terroris... (by Hudson, Rex A.)
A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
The Misuse of Mind (by Stephen, Karin)
The teacher's word book (by Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee))
History of Psychology; A Sketch and an I... (by Baldwin, James Mark)
The Intermediate Sex; A Study of Some Tr... (by Carpenter, Edward)
Essay on the Creative Imagination (by Ribot, Théodule)
The Story of the Mind (by James Mark Baldwin)
The Freedom of Life (by Call, Annie Payson)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Poverty of Philosophy (by Marx, Karl)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (by Smith, Adam)
In Praise of Poverty
Nature and Progress of Rent (by Malthus, Thomas)
Cecil Rhodes; The Man and His Work (by Le Sueur, Gordon)
The Collapse of Capitalism (by Cahn, Herman)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
A synopsis of the first three books of J... (by Mill, John Stuart)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Effects of the Corn Laws (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Abolition of Poverty (by Hollander, Jacob Harry)
The Way to Wealth; Or, Poor Richard Impr... (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
Oeconomicus (by Xenophon, of Athens)

Top 100 books on Government

Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
Declaration of Taking up Arms (by Second Continental Congress)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Works of Walter Moyle: None of which... (by Walter Moyle, Thomas Sergeant)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Letters of Junius
The Code of Hammurabi (by King, Leonard W.)
Communist Manifesto, The (by Marx, Karl)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
The Declaration of Rights of the Stamp A... (by Stamp Act Congress)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The American Democrat : Or, Hints on the... (by James Fenimore Cooper)
The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)

Top 100 books on Law

Amendments to the United States Constitu... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
The Development of the Associative Princ... (by Christopher Barker)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Relations between the Laws of Babylo... (by Johns, Claude Hermann Walter)
The Nature of the Judicial Process (by Benjamin N. Cardozo)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
Your Right to Federal Records Questions ...
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
Institutes of the Laws of England : Or a... Volume Vol. 6 (by Coke, Edward, Sir)
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of... (by Department of National Security)

Top 100 books on Politics

Proposed Roads to Freedom : Socialism, A... (by Russell, Bertrand)
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedien... (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Souls of Black Folk, The (by Du Bois, W.E.B.)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Candide (by Voltaire)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (by Aristotle, Frank Hesketh Peters)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
History of the Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

A Finding-List of History, Politics, Bio... (by Buffalo Library)
The Andaman Islanders; a Study in Social... (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald), 1881-195...)
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices (by Tozzer, Alfred M. (Alfred Marston))
The Genetic Relationship of the North Am... (by Radin, Paul)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
Modern Mythology (by Lang, Andrew)
Nayars of Malabar Volume Iii (by Fawcett, F.)
Types of Mankind, Or, Ethnological Resea... (by Nott, Josiah Clark)
The American Beaver and His Works (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth... (by Powell, J. W.)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
Anthropology and a Lifetime of Observati... (by Colson, Elizabeth)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)