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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)

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 History and Meaning of the Term Soci... (by Shields, Leo William)
Love-Marriage-Birth Control; Being a Spe... (by Dawson, Bertrand Dawson, Baron)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 2 (by Spencer, Herbert)
William the Conqueror (by Edward A. Freeman)
Anthropology (by Marett, R. R. (Robert Ranulph))
Confidences : Talks with a Young Girl Co... (by Edith Belle Lowry)
The War and Unity : Being Lectures Deliv... (by Cranage, David Herbert Somerset)
Toward a general theory of action (by Parsons, Talcott)
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
The Principles of Sociology : Volume 3 (by Spencer, Herbert)
The Threefold State, The True Aspect of ... (by Steiner, Rudolf)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Initiative Psychic Energy (by Hilton, Warren)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (by James, William)
Illusions : A Psychological Study (by Sully, James)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
A Psychological Counter-Current in Recen... (by Howells, William Dean, Editor)
The Principles of Psychology (by William James)
Studies in the Psychology of Sex. V.3, 1... (by Havelock Ellis)
The Misuse of Mind (by Stephen, Karin)
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the... (by Freud, Sigmund)
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic ... (by Pengilly, Mary Huestis)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Gestalt Psychology a Survey of Facts and... (by George W. Hartmann)
Malignant Self Love (by Vaknin, Sam)
Pavlov and His School the Theory of Cond... (by Professor Y. P. Frolov)
Des Homicides Commis Par Les Aliénés (by Blanche, E. (Émile), B. 1820)

Top 100 books on Economics

Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Accumulation of Capital (by Luxemburg, Rosa)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
The Evolution of Finance Capitalism (by Edwards, George W.)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)

Top 100 books on Government

Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Ma... (by Thomas ( Hobbes)
On Liberty (by Mill, J. S.)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
The Constitution of the United States (by United States. Constitution)
The Letters of Junius
Of the Law of Nature and Nations : Eight... (by Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr Von)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches :... (by Lincoln, Abraham)
The Commonwealth of Oceana (by Harrington, James)
Between Past and Future : Six Exercises ... (by Hannah Arendt)
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (by Adam Ferguson)
De Republica Anglorum; A Discourse on th... (by Smith, Thomas, Sir)

Top 100 books on Law

No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
The British Constitution; Or, An Epitome... (by Sir William Blackstone)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
The Age of Reason (by Thomas Paine)
Constitution of the New-England Anti-Sla... (by Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society)
Report on the Right of the Government of... (by United States. Division of Insular Affairs)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
The Magna Carta (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Conflict of Laws; Or, Private Internatio... (by Minor, Raleigh C)
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Sacred Text : the Age of Reason Volume IV (by Paine, Thomas)
Codification, Annotation, And Revision o... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Revis...)
League of Nations : Vol. 1 Volume Vol. 1
Extraterritorial Cases, Including the De... Volume Vol. 1 (by United States. Court for China)

Top 100 books on Politics

The Gettysburg Address (by Lincoln, Abraham)
Political Ideals (by Russell, Bertrand)
The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (by Aristotle, Frank Hesketh Peters)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Review of the management of our affairs ... (by China, China. Appendix. - History & Politics.)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
Of the Conduct of the Understanding (by John Locke)
Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
Les Misérables Volume: 1-2 (by Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Soci... (by Corey, Lewis)
Reflections on the Revolution in France (by Burke, Edmund)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Growing up in New Guinea; A Comparative ... (by Mead, Margaret)
Boas Anniversary Volume; Anthropological... (by Laufer, Berthold)
Influences of Geographic Environment of ... (by Semple, Ellen Churchill)
African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald))
The Fijians : A Study of the Decay of Cu... (by Thomson, Basil)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
Introduction to Anthropology (by Waitz, Theodore)
The American Beaver and His Works (by Lewis Henry Morgan)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Anthropology : Race, Language, Culture, ... (by Kroeber, Alfred Louis)
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Edmund Cros Quiggin)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
The races of man, and their geographical... (by Peschel, Oscar)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 21 Volume Vol. 21 (by American Anthropological Association)
The Genetic Relationship of the North Am... (by Radin, Paul)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

A New Era of Thought (by Hinton, Charles Howard)
Deductive Logic (by Stock, St. George)
The Elements of Euclid : The Errors by W... (by Euclid)
An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers... (by Ivan Niven)
Logic, Deductive and Inductive (by Carveth Read)
A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Dif... (by Boole, George)
Relativity : The Special and General The... (by Albert Einstein)
A Treatise on Differential Equations (by George Boole)
Chance and Luck : A Discussion of the La... (by Proctor, Richard Anthony)
A synopsis of elementary results in pure... (by Carr, G. S. (George Shoobridge))
Symbolic Logic and Its Applications (by John Venn)
Bija Ganita; Or, The Algebra of the Hind... (by Bhaskaracarya)
An Introduction to Mathematics (by Whitehead, Alfred North)
Projective geometry (by Mathews, George Ballard)
Theory of the Motion of the Heavenly Bod... (by Carl Friedrich Gauss)

Top 100 books on Economics

Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Accumulation of Capital (by Luxemburg, Rosa)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)
The Theory of Business Enterprise (by Veblen, Thorstein)
Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Cry for Justice; An Anthology of the... (by Sinclair, Upton, Ed)
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (by John Maynard Keynes)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
The Evolution of Finance Capitalism (by Edwards, George W.)
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foun... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)