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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The Negro in Chicago : a study of race r... (by Chicago Commission on Race Relations)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Sociology and Modern Social Problems (by Ellwood, Charles Abram)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)

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 Negro in Chicago : a study of race r... (by Chicago Commission on Race Relations)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Sociology and Modern Social Problems (by Ellwood, Charles Abram)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)

Top 100 books on Psychology

The Crowd : A Study of the Popular Mind (by Gustave Le Bon)
Studies in Forensic Psychiatry (by Glueck, Bernard)
Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Fantasia of the Unconscious (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
Psychological Types or the Psychology of... (by C. G. Jung)
Ethical Systems (by Wilhelm Wundt)
A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
The Origin and Nature of Emotions (by Crile, George W.)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
The Beautiful : An Introduction to Psych... (by Lee, Vernon)
Pavlov and His School the Theory of Cond... (by Professor Y. P. Frolov)
Psychology from the Standpoint of a Beha... (by Watson, John B. (John Broadus))
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
The Psychology of Management: The Functi... (by Lillian Moller Gilbreth)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
In Praise of Poverty
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Nature and Progress of Rent (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Government

The moral crusader, William Lloyd Garris... (by Smith, Goldwin)
The Code of Hammurabi (by King, Leonard W.)
Chronological Tables of the Chinese Dyna... (by E. R. Lyman, Tso-Ting Wang, Theodore Wong)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
On Liberty (by Winthrop, John)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
De Republica Anglorum; A Discourse on th... (by Smith, Thomas, Sir)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
1581 : The Dutch Declaration of Independ... (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Columbia Law Review (by Columbia University. School of Law)
Plato redivivus : or, A dialogue concern... (by Neville, Henry)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
An Introduction to the Principles of Mor... (by Bentham, Jeremy)

Top 100 books on Law

The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort;... Volume Year 1970 (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The United States' Constitution (by Fathers, Founding)
Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Introduction to Roman Law (by Hadley, James)
Documents on the League of Nations (by League of Nations. Covenant)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Curators, Collections, And Contexts : An... Volume Fieldiana, Anthropology, new series, no.36 (by Field Museum of Natural History)
Types of Mankind, Or, Ethnological Resea... (by Nott, Josiah Clark)
Systematic Theology (by Hodge, Charles)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Social structure (by Murdock, George Peter)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
The Prehistoric World : Or, Vanished Rac... (by Allen, E. A.)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
General Anthropology (by Boas, Franz)
The Golden Bough : A Study in Magic and ... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
The Study of Man: An Introduction (by Linton, Ralph)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

Symbolic logic (by Carroll, Lewis)
Vorlesungen über Zahlentheorie (by Peter Gustav Lejeune-Dirichlet)
The American Mathematical Monthly (by Mathematical Association of America)
Mathematical Geography (by Johnson, Willis Ernest)
The Aryabhatiya; With the Commentary Bha... (by Aryabhata)
The Alphabet of Economic Science (by Philip Henry Wicksteed)
Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philoma... (by Moritz, Robert Édouard)
Calcul des Probabilités. Lecons Professé... (by Poincaré, Henri)
Relativity : The Special and General The... (by Albert Einstein)
The Earliest Arithmetics in English (by Alexander, De Villa Dei)
Logic, Deductive and Inductive (by Carveth Read)
A Treatise on the Differential Calculus (by William Walton)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Hardy, Godfrey Harold)
Ptolemy's Cataloque of Stars; A Revision... (by Ptolemy)
A Treatise of Celestial Mechanics : Pt. ... Volume Pt. 1-2 (by Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis De)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
In Praise of Poverty
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Nature and Progress of Rent (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)