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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The Laws of Imitation (by Tarde, Gabriel)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
A Far Country (by Churchill, Winston)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas. (by Tilak, Bal Gangadhar)
Homo-Culture; Or, The Improvement of Off... (by Holbrook, Martin Luther)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)

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 Laws of Imitation (by Tarde, Gabriel)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
The Sociology of Gender in a Kindergarte... (by Mendheim, Barbara Anne)
A Far Country (by Churchill, Winston)
Wage Labour and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Omaha Sociology (by Dorsey, James Owen)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas. (by Tilak, Bal Gangadhar)
Homo-Culture; Or, The Improvement of Off... (by Holbrook, Martin Luther)
Catholic and Protestant Countries Compar... (by Young, Alfred)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Criminal Sociology (by Ferri, Enrico)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Self Mastery through Conscious Autosugge... (by Coue, Emile)
The Secret Places of the Heart (by Wells, Herbert George (H. G.))
Practical Lessons in Psychology (by William Otterbein Krohn)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Charles Mackay)
How to Use Your Mind (by Kitson, Harry D.)
Criminal Psychology (by Gross, Hans)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)
Contemporary Schools of Psychology (by Woodworth, Robert S.)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
Behavior an Introduction to Comparative ... (by John B. Watson)
Quit Your Worrying! (by George Wharton James)
Initiative Psychic Energy (by Hilton, Warren)
Psychologie de L'Éducation (by Gustave Le Bon)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)

Top 100 books on Economics

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of... (by Smith, Adam)
Effects of the Corn Laws (by Malthus, Thomas)
The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
Profits, Wages, and Prices (by David Friday)
The Trade Unions : An Appeal to the Work... (by Robert Somers)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)
Lombard Street : A Description of the Mo... (by Bagehot, Walter)
Classless Capitalism (by Stern, Frederick Martin.)

Top 100 books on Government

Discourse on Inequality (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Republic, Score Plato Rep (by Plato)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
On Liberty (by Winthrop, John)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
Britton (by Francis Morgan Nichols)
A Discourse of Government with Relation ... (by Fletcher, Andrew)
Ethica (by Baruch Spinoza, Benedictus De Spinoza, Johannes Va...)
A Treatise on Political Economy : Or the... (by Jean Baptiste Say)
The Constitutional Documents of the Puri... (by Gardiner, Samuel Rawson)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the... (by Marquis De Lafayette)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Law

The Idea of a League of Nations; Prolego... (by League of Nations Union)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
The Development of the Associative Princ... (by Christopher Barker)
Principles of English Law : Founded on B... (by Campbell, Robert)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Nature of the Judicial Process (by Benjamin N. Cardozo)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Wealth Of Nations (by Adam_Smith)
John King of England (by John T Appledy)
Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of t... (by Chesnutt, Charles Waddell)
Treatise on Law Summa Theologica Questio... (by Thomas Aquinas)
A Law Dictionary : Adapted to the Consti... (by Bouvier, John)
William Caxton (by Edward Gordon Duff)
Documents on the League of Nations (by League of Nations. Covenant)
The American's Guide: Comprising the Dec...

Top 100 books on Politics

Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl...
Philosophy of Right (by Hegel, G. W. F.)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, J. S.)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Trial and Death of Socrates (by Plato)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Art of War, The (version 2) (by Sun Tzu)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
American Anthropologist (by American Anthropological Association)
Ancient Society (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
The History of Mankind Volume: v.3 (by Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Modern Theories of Criminality (by Bernaldo De Quiros, Constancio)
The History of Mankind (by Ratzel, Friedrich)
The American Indian: An Introduction to ... (by Clark Wissler)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 3 Volume Vol. 3 (by American Anthropological Association)
An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (by Lowie, Robert Harry)
American Anthropologist (by The American Anthropological Association)
Bulletin (by United States Bureau of Labor)
The races of man, and their geographical... (by Peschel, Oscar)
The Golden Bough : A Study in Magic and ... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
Cesare Lombroso, A Modern Man of Science (by Kurella, Hans)