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A Sociology Exhibit

Organizing Relationships

The social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)
The Structure of Social Action; A Study ... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Introduction to the Science of Sociology (by Park, Robert Ezra)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Essays in Sociological Theory (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 social principles of Jesus (by Rauschenbusch, Walter)
Young Folks, History of England (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Domesday Studies, Being the Papers Read ... Volume 2 (by Domesday Commemoration)
The Structure of Social Action; A Study ... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Introduction to the Science of Sociology (by Park, Robert Ezra)
Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts o... (by Charles William Wason)
The Fundamental Principles of Old and Ne... (by Zelia Nuttall)
Almost a Woman (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
The Sexual Question : A Scientific, Psyc... (by Auguste Forel)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
Almost a Man (by Wood-Allen, Mary)
Essays in Sociological Theory (by Parsons, Talcott)

Top 100 books on Psychology

Applied Psychology : A Series of Twelve ... (by Warren Hilton)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Laughter : An Essay on the Meaning of th... (by Bergson, Henri)
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing (by Cutten, George Barton)
Beyond the Pleasure Principle (by Sigmund Freud)
The Interpretation of Dreams (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Beautiful : An Introduction to Psych... (by Lee, Vernon)
The Science of Human Nature; A Psycholog... (by Pyle, William Henry)
Talks to Teachers on Psychology, And to ... (by James, William)
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (by Freud, Sigmund)
The Foundations of Personality (by Myerson, Abraham)
Initiative Psychic Energy (by Hilton, Warren)
The Sexual Life of the Child (by Moll, Albert)
Psychotherapy (by Münsterberg, Hugo)
Ethical Systems (by Wilhelm Wundt)

Top 100 books on Economics

Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Mackay, Charles)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
Capitalism and Slavery (by Williams Eric.)
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (First E... (by Smith, Adam)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism Capi... (by R. H. Tawney)

Top 100 books on Government

The Charlotte Town Resolves (by Charlotte Town Committee)
The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Ma... (by Thomas ( Hobbes)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
The Bolsheviki and World Peace (by Trotsky, Leon)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Discourses Concerning Government Volume 1 (by Sidney, Algernon)
Robert's Rules of Order Pocket Manual of... (by Robert, Henry M. (Henry Martyn))
The Union of Utrecht (by Lucy Maynard Salmon)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (by Wollstonecraft, Mary)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Ethica (by Baruch Spinoza, Benedictus De Spinoza, Johannes Va...)
The Petition of Right (by Relf, Frances Helen)

Top 100 books on Law

Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)
Your Right to Federal Records Questions ...
The Summa Theologica Volume I (by Thomas Aquinas)
Politics (by Aristotle)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
Terrorism, Asylum Issues, And U.S. Immig... (by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee On the ...)
The English Constitution (by Sir Frederick Pollock)
Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
The Athenian Constitution ; The Eudemian... (by Aristotle)
Nuclear proliferation : future U.S. fore... (by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Inter...)
Lectures on Jurisprudence (by Robert Campbell)
Confucianism (by Anonymous)
The Foreign Relation of China: A History... (by Pao, Ming-Chien)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)

Top 100 books on Politics

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
The Art of War (by Henri Jomini)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl...
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedien... (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawy... (by Twain, Mark)
China at the Peace Conference, August 19... (by Far Eastern Political Science Review)
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (by Wollstonecraft, Mary)
Apology, Score Plato Apology (by Plato)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
The Republic (by Plato)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of C... (by Weber, Max)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, John Stuart)
Utilitarianism (by Mill, J. S.)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (by Arendt, Hannah)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Man from the Farthest Past : Volume 7 (by Bishop, Carl Whiting)
Introduction to Anthropology (by Waitz, Theodore)
The Witch Cult in Western Europe (by Murray, Margaret Alice)
The races of man, and their geographical... (by Peschel, Oscar)
The Prehistoric World : Or, Vanished Rac... (by Allen, E. A.)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Pedagogical Anthropology (by Montessori, Maria)
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Minda... (by Cole, Fay Cooper)
A Bibliography of the Anthropology of Pe... (by George Amos Dorsey)
Sex and Repression in Savage Society (by Malinowski, Bronislaw)
The History of Mankind (by Ratzel, Friedrich)
Man Past and Present (by Keane, Augustus Henry)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Games of the North American Indians (by Culin, Stewart)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)

Top 100 books on Mathematics

L'Arithmetiqve De Simon Stevin De Brvges (by Stevin, Simon, 1548-1620)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
A Treatise on Differential Equations (by George Boole)
A Treatise on Probability (by Keynes, John Maynard)
The Elements of the Theory of Algebraic ... (by Reid, Legh Wilber)
Theory of the Motion of the Heavenly Bod... (by Carl Friedrich Gauss)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Hardy, Godfrey Harold)
Carl Friedrich Gauss' Untersuchungen übe... (by Hermann Maser, Carl Friedrich Gauss)
Symbolic Logic (by John Venn)
A Course of Pure Mathematics (by Godfrey Harold Hardy)
The Earliest Arithmetics in English (by Steele, Robert)
Elements of Algebra (by Euler, Leonhard)
Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions (by Edwin Abbott)
The Aryabhatiya; With the Commentary Bha... (by Aryabhata)
The Elements of Euclid : The Errors by W... (by Euclid)

Top 100 books on Economics

Mutual Aid (by Kropotkin, P.)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusio... (by Mackay, Charles)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
On Colonialism (by Marx, Karl)
Capitalism and Slavery (by Williams Eric.)
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (First E... (by Smith, Adam)
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism (by John A. Hobson)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism Capi... (by R. H. Tawney)