Cooley
A Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7215907 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Gutman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1958 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 251-251 |
| Publication date | 1958-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2089238 |
| OpenAlex | W2319393869 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
W THEN Nature and the Social Order' was first published, in 1902, the reviewer for the American Journal of Sociology said of it: volume is something of an anomaly in sociological literature, but it is none the less welcome for its very non-conformity. 2 One has only to go back to the works of the most influential of Cooley's contemporaries, particularly Ward and Giddings, to understand what the reviewer meant. These sociologists were obsessed by questions about the province and proper subject-matter of sociology; about the relation of sociology to the other social sciences; and about the essential principle of human society which distinguished it from animal life. Their writings, especially those of Ward, were voluminous, and packed with complex but not very arresting formulations designed to answer these questions. Whatever good ideas they had were hidden beneath a cloak of obscure expressions and concepts. It is hard to find passages in their books which communicate any sense of the America in which they lived. Although both Ward and Giddings, but particularly the latter, advocated the importance of social research, their own activities fitted the stereotype of the armchair sociologist. In spirit and intent, Cooley's work was different. Where Ward and Giddings were systematic, he was casual. His talents as a writer outshone even his ability as an observer and thinker. Cooley's books are concerned with behavior in the full range of human societies, but nevertheless one gains from them considerable insight into the structure of the family, the role of children, the place of the church and the personalities of businessmen in the America of his day. Compared to the number of Ward's and Giddings' publications, Cooley's writings are few. The two works recently reprinted, with the addition of Social Process, published in 1918, are the only full-length books he wrote.3 Many of the questions which so bothered his contemporaries in American sociology were of no importance to Cooley; or if they did interest him, his answers to them were usually different from those given by Ward and Giddings. Cooley believed that the subject-matter of sociology was either personal intercourse considered in its primary aspects-the development of human nature -or in its secondary aspects, such as groups, institutions and processes. To this state1 A revised edition of this book was published in 1922. This edition, and Social Organization, Cooley's second major work originally published in 1909, have recently been reprinted in a single volume: The Two Major Works of Charles H. Cooley, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1956. Robert Cooley Angell has contributed an introduction to the volume. 2 George E. Vincent, Review of Human Nature and the Social Order, American Journal of Sociology, 8 (January, 1903), pp. 559-563. 3 Although published as a book, Life and the Student (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1927), is a collection of comments from Cooley's journals. 251
Perspective (graphical · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1966 - 2026 (61) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |