DOCSLIB.ORG

SOCIAL ETHICS: Sociology and the Future of Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SOCIAL ETHICS: Sociology and the Future of Society SOCIAL ETHICS: Sociology and the Future of Society Charlotte Perkins Gilman PRAEGER Social Ethics SOCIAL ETHICS Sociology and the Future of Society Charlotte Perkins Gilman Edited with an Introduction by Michael R. Hill and Mary Jo Deegan Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860–1935. Social ethics : sociology and the future of society / by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ; edited, with an introduction by Michael R. Hill and Mary Jo Deegan. p. cm. Originally published in serial form in Gilman’s monthly journal, The forerunner, in 1914. Cf. Introd. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–275–97886–9 (alk. paper) 1. Social ethics. 2. Sociology—Philosophy. I. Hill, Michael R. II. Deegan, Mary Jo, 1946– III. Title. HM665.G55 2004 303.3Ј72—dc21 2003053021 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright ᭧ 2004 by Michael R. Hill and Mary Jo Deegan All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003053021 ISBN: 0–275–97886–9 First published in 2004 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 This edition is dedicated to Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, Scholars, Feminists, and Co-Organizers of the Section on the History of Sociology in the American Sociological Association, and to the memory of George Elliott Howard (1849–1928), Nebraska sociologist and president of the American Sociological Society, in whose personal copies of The Forerunner we found the text of Social Ethics. CONTENTS Introduction: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Sociological Perspective on Ethics and Society ix Michael R. Hill and Mary Jo Deegan Social Ethics: Sociology and the Future of Society 1. The Nature of Ethics 1 2. Some Bases of Ethical Valuation 11 3. The Influence of Religion Upon Ethics 21 4. As to “The Origin of Evil” 33 5. Sin 45 6. Virtues and Principles 55 7. The Position of Women as Influencing Ethics 67 8. The Training of the Child 77 9. On Certain Interactions 87 10. Instances 99 11. Conduct and Progress 111 12. New Standards and New Hopes 121 viii CONTENTS Notes 131 Index 145 About the Author and Editors 167 INTRODUCTION: CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN’S SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ETHICS AND SOCIETY Michael R. Hill and Mary Jo Deegan Then, being nothing if not practical, they set their keen and active minds to discover the kind of conduct expected of them. This worked out in a most admirable system of ethics. —Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland Social Ethics: Sociology and the Future of Society provides a complex yet accessible statement of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s mature socio- logical theory of ethical life. Her perspective is welded intellectually to sociology and evolutionary thought and concretely to the well-being of children throughout the world. We have failed, writes Gilman in Social Ethics, to teach even “a simple, child-convincing ethics based on social interactions, because we have not understood sociology” (emphasis added). For Gilman, a world in which children are not loved, well fed, properly clothed, thoughtfully educated, and humanely disciplined is a world ethically at odds with logic and itself. From this fundamental premise, all else follows. Thus: war, barbarism, waste, religious bigotry, conspicuous consumption, greed, environmental degradation, preventable diseases, and patriarchal oppression in all its manifestations—all these for Gilman are highly unethical and must not be allowed to stand if society is to be a good place for children. If, as readers of Social Ethics, we sense that we are being firmly lectured as well as cajoled by Gilman’s penetrating wit and obvious intellect—that is because we are. Gilman pulls no punches, she really intends us to change our ways, and to use x INTRODUCTION sociological insights to improve our future society. Social Ethics first appeared in 1914 in serial form in Gilman’s extraordinary pedagogical experiment in adult education, a self-published monthly sociological journal, issued from 1909 to 1916, written entirely by Gilman and called, aptly enough, The Forerunner. The publication of Social Ethics, now for the first time in book form, completes the republication of four of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s major sociological works originally serialized in the final volumes of The Fore- runner during 1914, 1915, and 1916. Taken as a whole, Gilman’s Social Ethics, Herland, With Her in Ourland, and The Dress of Women provide an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to the central sociological issues facing not only Gilman’s era, but also our increasingly hyper- modern era at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Each of these works—whether fiction or non-fiction, fundamental overview or special study, hypothetical thought experiment or searing real world critique— informs, interprets, and reinforces the others. Of the major works in this sociological quartet, Herland is undoubt- edly the best known and most widely read, and when first published in book form in 1979, with an introduction by Ann J. Lane, was trumpeted as a “lost feminist classic” (see, for a more carefully edited recent edition, Gilman 1999). Herland is a fictional fantasy in which three male ex- plorers discover a secluded and idyllic world inhabited and governed only by women, and this latter feature has understandably delighted suc- cessive waves of scholars and students in women’s studies and American literature courses. Yet Herland, despite its literary attributes, is funda- mentally a work of sociology. It is not a utopia, but rather a lucid and persuasive thought experiment of the highest order in which Gilman plays systematically with alternate institutional arrangements and inter- personal relationships emerging from women’s values and worldview. Herland is a step on the way to a future utopia where men and women create the ideal society. The ending of With Her in Ourland points to the possibility of such a utopia, but Gilman does not write the story of that utopia. When Herland is evaluated as a utopia, and this is a large literature (e.g., Kessler 1995; Knight 1997, 1999; Lane 1979), it is the scholar who depicts Herland as a utopia, not Gilman. Gilman wrote With Her in Ourland in order to add a necessary step toward the possible imaginary land where men and women are both full human beings and children are central to the social structure. For a thorough analysis of Herland in cultural terms, see Deegan (1997), and, more briefly, as a sociological thought experiment, see M.R. Hill (1996). Of the three men introduced into Herland, it is Vandyke Jennings, a INTRODUCTION xi sociologist, who—although flawed—is nonetheless the most sympathet- ically portrayed and is ultimately the most amenable to the unfolding sociological rationale of Gilman’s hypothetical Herland. Van narrates the story and, importantly, comprehends what the Herland women have ac- complished (Gilman 1999: 102–3): Their religion, you see, was maternal; and their ethics, based on the full perception of evolution, showed the principle of growth and the beauty of wise culture. They had no theory of the essential opposition of good and evil; life to them was growth; their pleasure was in growing, and their duty also. With this background, with their sublimated mother-love, expressed in terms of widest social activity, every phase of their work was modified by its effect on the national growth. The language itself they had deliberately clarified, simplified, made easy and beautiful, for the sake of the children. This seemed to us a wholly incredible thing: first, that any nation should have the foresight, the strength, and the persistence to plan and fulfill such a task; and second, that women should have had so much initiative. We have assumed, as a matter of course, that women had none; that only the man, with his natural energy and impatience of restriction, would ever invent anything. Here we found that the pressure of life upon the environment develops in the human mind its inventive reactions, regardless of sex; and further, that a fully awakened motherhood plans and works without limit, for the good of the child. And as to ethics, per se, Van reported (Gilman 1999: 114): They developed their central theory of a Loving Power, and assumed that its relation to them was motherly—that it desired their welfare and espe- cially their development. Their relation to it, similarly, was filial, a loving appreciation and a glad fulfillment of its high purposes. Then, being noth- ing if not practical, they set their keen and active minds to discover the kind of conduct expected of them. This worked out in a most admirable system of ethics. The principle of Love was universally recognized—and used. Patience, gentleness, courtesy, all that we call “good breeding,” was part of their code of conduct. But where they went far beyond us was in the special application of religious feeling to every field of life. They had no ritual, no little set of performances called “divine service,” save those religious pageants I have spoken of, and those were as much educational as religious, and as much social as either. But they had a clear established connection between everything they did—and God. Their cleanliness, their health, their exquisite order, the rich peaceful beauty of the whole land, xii INTRODUCTION the happiness of the children, and above all the constant progress they made—all this was their religion.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Alice Rossi (1922-2009): Feminist Scholar and an Ardent Activist
    Volume 38 • Number 1 • January 2010 Alice Rossi (1922-2009): Feminist Scholar and an Ardent Activist by Jay Demerath, Naomi Gerstel, Harvard, the University of were other honors too: inside Michael Lewis, University of Chicago, and John Hopkins The Ernest W. Burgess Massachusetts - Amherst as a “research associate”—a Award for Distinguished position often used at the Research on the Family lice S. Rossi—the Harriet time for academic women (National Council of ASA’s 2010 Election Ballot Martineau Professor of Sociology 3 A married to someone in Family Relations, 1996); Find out the slate of officer and Emerita at the University of the same field. She did not the Commonwealth Award Massachusetts - Amherst, a found- committee candidates for the receive her first tenured for a Distinguished Career ing board member of the National 2010 election. appointment until 1969, in Sociology (American Organization for Women (NOW) Alice Rossi (1922-2009) when she joined the faculty Sociological Association, (1966-70), first president of at Goucher College, and her first 1989); elected American Academy of August 2009 Council Sociologists for Women in Society 5 appointment to a graduate depart- Arts and Sciences Fellow (1986); and Highlights (1971-72), and former president of the ment did not come until 1974, honorary degrees from six colleges Key decisions include no change American Sociological Association when she and her husband, Peter H. and universities. in membership dues, but (1982-83)—died of pneumonia on Rossi, moved to the University of As an original thinker, Alice man- subscription rates see a slight November 3, 2009, in Northampton, Massachusetts-Amherst as Professors aged to combine her successful activ- Massachusetts.
    [Show full text]
  • Eugenics and Domestic Science in the 1924 Sociological Survey of White Women in North Queensland
    This file is part of the following reference: Colclough, Gillian (2008) The measure of the woman : eugenics and domestic science in the 1924 sociological survey of white women in North Queensland. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/5266 THE MEASURE OF THE WOMAN: EUGENICS AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE IN THE 1924 SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WHITE WOMEN IN NORTH QUEENSLAND Thesis submitted by Gillian Beth COLCLOUGH, BA (Hons) WA on February 11 2008 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Arts and Social Sciences James Cook University Abstract This thesis considers experiences of white women in Queensland‟s north in the early years of „white‟ Australia, in this case from Federation until the late 1920s. Because of government and health authority interest in determining issues that might influence the health and well-being of white northern women, and hence their families and a future white labour force, in 1924 the Institute of Tropical Medicine conducted a comprehensive Sociological Survey of White Women in selected northern towns. Designed to address and resolve concerns of government and medical authorities with anxieties about sanitation, hygiene and eugenic wellbeing, the Survey used domestic science criteria to measure the health knowledge of its subjects: in so doing, it gathered detailed information about their lives. Guided by the Survey assessment categories, together with local and overseas literature on racial ideas, the thesis examines salient social and scientific concerns about white women in Queensland‟s tropical north and in white-dominated societies elsewhere and considers them against the oral reminiscences of women who recalled their lives in the North for the North Queensland Oral History Project.
    [Show full text]
  • Centennial Bibliography on the History of American Sociology
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sociology Department, Faculty Publications Sociology, Department of 2005 Centennial Bibliography On The iH story Of American Sociology Michael R. Hill [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Hill, Michael R., "Centennial Bibliography On The iH story Of American Sociology" (2005). Sociology Department, Faculty Publications. 348. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/348 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R., (Compiler). 2005. Centennial Bibliography of the History of American Sociology. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. CENTENNIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY Compiled by MICHAEL R. HILL Editor, Sociological Origins In consultation with the Centennial Bibliography Committee of the American Sociological Association Section on the History of Sociology: Brian P. Conway, Michael R. Hill (co-chair), Susan Hoecker-Drysdale (ex-officio), Jack Nusan Porter (co-chair), Pamela A. Roby, Kathleen Slobin, and Roberta Spalter-Roth. © 2005 American Sociological Association Washington, DC TABLE OF CONTENTS Note: Each part is separately paginated, with the number of pages in each part as indicated below in square brackets. The total page count for the entire file is 224 pages. To navigate within the document, please use navigation arrows and the Bookmark feature provided by Adobe Acrobat Reader.® Users may search this document by utilizing the “Find” command (typically located under the “Edit” tab on the Adobe Acrobat toolbar).
    [Show full text]
  • Prohibition in the Taft Court Era
    William & Mary Law Review Volume 48 (2006-2007) Issue 1 Article 2 October 2006 Federalism, Positive Law, and the Emergence of the American Administrative State: Prohibition in the Taft Court Era Robert Post Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Repository Citation Robert Post, Federalism, Positive Law, and the Emergence of the American Administrative State: Prohibition in the Taft Court Era, 48 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1 (2006), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol48/iss1/2 Copyright c 2006 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr William and Mary Law Review VOLUME 48 No.1, 2006 FEDERALISM, POSITIVE LAW, AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATIVE STATE: PROHIBITION IN THE TAFT COURT ERAt ROBERT POST* ABSTRACT This Article offers a detailed analysis of major Taft Court decisions involving prohibition, including Olmstead v. United States, Carroll v. United States, United States v. Lanza, Lambert v. Yellowley, and Tumey v. Ohio. Prohibition,and the Eighteenth Amendment by which it was constitutionally entrenched, was the result of a social movement that fused progressive beliefs in efficiency with conservative beliefs in individualresponsibility and self-control. During the 1920s the Supreme Court was a strictly "bone-dry" institution that regularly sustained the administrative and law enforcement techniques deployed by the federal government in its t This Article makes extensive use of primary source material, including the papers of members of the Taft Court. All unpublished sources cited herein are on file with the author.
    [Show full text]
  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Entrepreneurial Turn: a Working Introduction Michael R
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sociology Department, Faculty Publications Sociology, Department of 2010 Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Entrepreneurial Turn: A Working Introduction Michael R. Hill University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Hill, Michael R., "Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Entrepreneurial Turn: A Working Introduction" (2010). Sociology Department, Faculty Publications. 363. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/363 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R. 2010. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Entrepreneurial Turn: A Working Introduction.” Paper presented to The Jane Addams Conference on Social Entrepreneurship. (A conference arranged by the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University in cooperation with The Nobel Museum in Stockholm). Uppsala, Sweden, November 19. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Entrepreneurial Turn: A Working Introduction 1 Michael R. Hill 2 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA Abstract Charlotte Perkins Gilman, lived from 1860 to 1935 — the same years as did Jane Addams. Gilman was an American, a pioneering sociologist, an influential feminist pragmatist, a peripatetic lecturer, a prolific author, and a friend of Addams. Although Gilman died in 1935, she remains today a provocative sociological presence whose writings continue to make us think, argue, and question our preconceptions.
    [Show full text]
  • Edward Alsworth Ross Michael R
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sociology Department, Faculty Publications Sociology, Department of 1999 Edward Alsworth Ross Michael R. Hill University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Hill, Michael R., "Edward Alsworth Ross" (1999). Sociology Department, Faculty Publications. 421. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/421 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R. 1999. “Ross, Edward Alsworth.” Pp. 907-908 in American National Biography, volume 18, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. New York: Oxford University Press. EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS1 Michael R. Hill Department of Sociology University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0324 DWARD ALSWORTH ROSS (Dec. 12, 1866 - July 22, 1951), sociologist and writer, was born in Virden, Illinois, the son of William Carpenter Ross, a Efarmer, and Rachel Alsworth, a school teacher. Orphaned by his mother’s and father’s deaths (1874 and 1876, respectively), Ross was sheltered in turn by three Iowa farm families. Of the latter, Ross regarded Mary Beach as his foster mother. Alexander Campbell, Ross’ lawyer guardian, shepherded his inheritance, thereby providing ample funds for his schooling. Completing the A.B.
    [Show full text]
  • For Immediate Release August 23, 2005 Mary Jo Deegan and Michael
    For Immediate Release August 23, 2005 TWO NEBRASKA SCHOLARS WIN TOP SOCIOLOGY HONORS — AGAIN! Mary Jo Deegan and Michael R. Hill, both of Lincoln, Nebraska, again walked away with top honors in their research specialty at the recent centennial meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Philadelphia earlier this month. Hill and Deegan won the 2005 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award from the ASA Section on the History of Sociology for their meticulous edition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Social Ethics: Sociology and the Future of Society. Gilman, who died in 1935, was a pioneering sociologist and is well-known as the author of the classic short story: “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) and a non-fiction book on Women and Economics (1898). Social Ethics, written in 1914, was discovered by Deegan and Hill after years of archival and library research. The award selection committee cited the Nebraska researchers “for their enormous scholarly efforts in bringing this lost classic to our attention” and for providing “exhaustive and detailed annotation and endnotes which explain Gilman’s vocabulary and sociological references, making it easily accessible and understandable to those who have not yet discovered and are not already familiar with her work.” Social Ethics was issued by Praeger Publishers of Westport, Connecticut, in 2004. During award ceremonies at the Philadelphia Marriot Hotel, Hill was also applauded for his research and creative initiative in designing and compiling a Centennial Bibliography on the History of American Sociology, a large documentary work commissioned by the American Sociological Association and now available on-line to interested students via the ASA’s official website.
    [Show full text]
  • Now Reaching Around the World SOCIOLOGICAL ORIGINS
    SOCIOLOGICAL ORIGINS A JOURNAL OF RESEARCH DOCUMENTATION AND CRITIQUE ——————————— MICHAEL R. HILL, EDITOR ISSN 1557-9727 Cumulative Author Index – Volumes I-V(1) With Chronologies of Special Issues and Supplements Summer 1998 – Fall 2006 MICHAEL R. HILL, Editor BRIAN P. CONWAY, Associate Editor CONNIE D. FREY, Associate Editor GREGORY J. ROSENBOOM, Associate Editor ANDREW R. TIMMING, Associate Editor LARRY REYNOLDS, Founding Benefactor LYNN MCDONALD, Sustaining Benefactor SOCIOLOGICAL ORIGINS is published serially by the George Elliott Howard Institute for Advanced Sociological Research, 2701 Sewell Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502 USA. Articles in SOCIOLOGICAL ORIGINS are indexed in CSA Sociological Abstracts. A Howard’s Library Publication ISSN 1557-9727 Copyright 2007 by The George Elliott Howard Institute for Advanced Sociological Research. The Howard’s Library logo is a digital reproduction of the distinctive stamp that George Elliott Howard affixed to his personal books. The stamp is still seen today in several volumes that Howard donated to the University of Nebraska Library in Lincoln. George Elliott Howard (1849-1928) was a distinguished historian and social scientist, a member of the second graduating class at the University of Nebraska in 1876, a nationally-recognized historian, Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska, and, in 1917, President of the American Sociological Society. For additional information and special features, please visit our free website: www.sociological-origin.com SOCIOLOGICAL ORIGINS CUMULATIVE AUTHOR INDEX [Volumes I-V(1)]. Summer 1998 – Fall 2006 Adler, Patricia A. and Peter Adler The Joys of Research: A Preface to the 1998 Keynote Address to the Nebraska Undergraduate Sociological Symposium.
    [Show full text]
  • The Intellectual Context of Émile Durkheim's Review of George Elliott
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sociology Department, Faculty Publications Sociology, Department of 2000 The nI tellectual Context of Émile Durkheim’s Review of George Elliott oH ward’s American Institutional Perspective on Marriage and Divorce Michael R. Hill University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Hill, Michael R., "The nI tellectual Context of Émile Durkheim’s Review of George Elliott oH ward’s American Institutional Perspective on Marriage and Divorce" (2000). Sociology Department, Faculty Publications. 384. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/384 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R. 2000. “The Intellectual Context of Émile Durkheim’s Review of George Elliott Howard’s American Institutional Perspective on Marriage and Divorce.” Sociological Origins 2 (Winter): 75-80. A SYMPOSIUM ON GEORGE ELLIOTT HOWARD’S HISTORY OF MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS The Intellectual Context of Émile Durkheim’s Review of George Elliott Howard’s American Institutional Perspective on Marriage and Divorce1 Michael R. Hill RGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT work produced within the Nebraska tradition of sociology is George Elliott Howard’s (1904) massive History of Matrimonial AInstitutions. The work was widely read, much admired, and warmly critiqued–and it influenced the shape of divorce law reform in the United States of America.
    [Show full text]
  • Edward A. Ross at the University of Nebraska, 1901.19061
    Mid-American Review of Sociology THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN AMERICAN DISCIPLINE: EDWARD A. ROSS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 1901.19061 Bruce Keith University ofNebraska-Lincoln Mid-American Review of Sociology, 1988, Vol xm, No. 2:43-56 IN1RODUCTION Edward Alsworth Ross (1866-1951) was appointed Professor of Sociol­ ogy at the University of Nebraska during the spring of 1901, after being curtly dismissed from Stanford University the previous December in a controversial freedom of speech case (cf., Weinberg 1972). Ross was the first Professor of Sociology, per se, at Nebraska. During the five years (1901-1906) he taught at Nebraska, Ross' publications instrumentally shaped the character of the new discipline of sociology in the United States. On the basis of his scholarly work at Nebraska, Ross became recognized as one of the foremost American sociologists of the twentieth century," This paper reviews the interpretive context of Ross' Nebraska work and surveys the major intellectual contributions of his monographs from this period. Ross (1936: 87) wrote fondly of his days at Nebraska, "My lustrum at Nebraska was happy, for three sons were born to us and all throve." He recalled, "the air there has a winey effect, pleases the lungs as sparkling Burgandy pleases the palate. Many a day I found that just to respire was intoxicating" (Ross 1936: 87). If the invigorating prairie air had an expan­ sive effect on the size of Ross' family, it clearly profited his work as a scholar. By virtually all accounts, his Nebraska period was the most intel­ lectually productive and sociologically significant.
    [Show full text]
  • Disciplining the Reception of Darwin: the Botanical and Sociological Work of Lester Frank Ward
    AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Katharine Zimmerman for the degree of Master of Arts in History of Science on November 7, 2006 Title: Disciplining the Reception of Darwin: the Botanical and Sociological Work of Lester Frank Ward. Abstract approved: ____________________________________________________________________ Paul Lawrence Farber Mina Carson The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, truly a synthesized work of natural history, coincided with the emergence of specialized disciplines in the 19th century. This thesis aims to explore the relationship between the specialization of knowledge, in the form of disciplinization, and the reception of new theories in emerging disciplines. To investigate how the development of new disciplines can affect theory reception I will focus on the work of Lester Frank Ward, a prominent paleobotanist who worked jointly for the U.S. National Museum and the U.S Geologic Survey in Washington, DC. Ward was not only central to Gilded Age paleobotany, but he was also devoted to establishing an American sociological tradition, for which he is better remembered. By analyzing the ways in which Ward interpreted and integrated Darwinian evolution into his dual-discipline career, the social and intellectual relationship between the processes of disciplinization and theory reception can be better understood. Comparing and contrasting Ward’s approach towards Darwin in his botanical and sociological work allows for an evaluation of how two very singular and distinct disciplines, each with specialized disciplinary topographies, affected one scientist’s interpretation and application of a new theory. Using evidence found in the Lester Frank Ward Papers at the Smithsonian Institution Archives and at Brown University, the collections of the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of Natural History, I will demonstrate how disciplinization as a process in both the historical and social sciences affected the interpretation and application of Darwin’s theory of evolution not only in Ward’s work, but more broadly as well.
    [Show full text]
  • MARSV13N2A6.Pdf (1.291Mb)
    RESEARCH BY BUREAUCRACY: HAlTIE PLUM WILLIAMS Mid-American Review of Sociology AND THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON LAW OBSERVANCE AND ENFORCEMENT, 1929-1931 1 Poster, Mark. 1978. Critical Theory of the Family. New York: Seabury Press. " D" " Michael R. Hill Ross, Edward Alsworth. 1909. "The Significance of Increasing ivorce, University ofNebraska-Lincoln Century 78: 149-152. .. ". Smith, Munroe. 1905. "Review of A History of MatrImonIal Instiuuions, by Mid-American Review of Sociology, 1988, Vol. xm, No. 2:69-84. G.E. Howard." Political Science Quarterly 20: 314-~18. ". Chan~e. Sumner, William G. 1909. "The Family and Social Publications of IN1RODUCTION the American Sociological Society 3: 1-15. Repnnted 1909, Ameri- can Journal of Sociology 14: 577-591. ... This paper explores the bureaucratized research activities (1929-1931) of Thomas, William I. 1904. "Review of A History of Moirimonial Institutions, the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (NCLOE) ~01U~1 Soci~logy by G.B. Howard." American of 10: 129-131. from the perspective of Hattie Plum Williams' sociobiographical experience. 1907. Sex and Society: Studies In the SOCIal Psychology of Sex. Williams was a doctoral student of George E. Howard and earned her Ph.D. -- Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .. in 1915 -- the first doctorate in sociology awarded by the University of Thwing, Charles F.; and Carrie F. Butler Thwing, 1886. The Family: An Nebraska. That same year, she joined the Nebraska faculty and eventually Historical and Social Study. Boston: Lee and Shepard. " .." became Chair of the Department (1922-1928).2 In 1931, at age 53, this full Vincent, Melvin J.
    [Show full text]