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This article presents a history of sociology from the point of view of a sociologist who spent 56 years in practice. Sociologists in the early 1900s sought to influence people toward self-improvement. His three basic principles involved social utility, academic writing, and influencing the direction of social change.

Copyright of International Review of Sociology (Series 1) 1954-1985 is the property of Carfax Publishing Company and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review of Sociology (Series 1) 1954-1985 is the property of Carfax Publishing Company and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Great Plains in North America is a semi-arid region in the center of the continent, the most recently settled aerea. Ir received settlers -- of modern Europeans -- only in the last century when it was recognized as a place where wheat could be grown. It is a unique area little understood even by persons within the United States. This study attempts to combine demography and sociology in a beginning interpretation of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the course of modern family theory, which has arisen in the past century and a half, numerous concepts have been used to describe and classify family systems. Among these theorists might be mentioned as illustrations Henry Sumner Maine, J. I. Bachofen, Frederic Le Play, John Lubbock, E.S. Westermarck, Frederick Engels, Auguste Bebel and George Howard. There were many others. H. S. Maine generally is credited with the "patriarchal" patronym in his theory of the constant movement of society from "status" to "contract." In this type of surge the family of patriarchal type had to give way to one that was contractual or of individual choice. On the other hand, J.J. Bachofen, a similar student of changes in juridical systems, created the concept of a matriarchal origin of the family system. It moved from matriarchy to patriarchy according to the Bachofen thesis. Lubbock, Maine and others, with particular experience in India, used the concept of the "joint" family system to characterize the idea of social unity in that somewhat amorphous society. Frederic Le Play investigated mostly the Eurasian family systems. He used a battery of terms such as patriarchal, particularist, famille souche and others to describe this unit at various times and changing periods of its existence. Essentially Le Play was a cyclical theorist. He believed that societies prospered when they had what he called "strong families," and eventually began to decay when the family changed away from its basic extended mutual aid form. So he used terms for "prosperity" and "suffering" to indicate the changed status of the family systems and of the societies.

This section presents news of sociological interest in the U.S. as of October 1958. The Reverend Joseph H. Fichter, presented a paper on "The City Curate as a Career Man" at the convention of the American Sociological Society held August 27 to 29 in Seattle, Washington. "Parochial School: A Sociological Study," a report of Father Fichter's research while a visiting professor at Notre Dame, will be published this fall by the University of Notre Dame Press. The Reverend Donald R. Campion, S.J., since June 28 assistant editor of "America," addressed the Fourth Annual Institute of Philosophy at Mount Saint Agnes College, Baltimore, June 23, on "The Sociologist and His Work," as part of a week's discussion of "Social Dimensions of the Disciplines." "An Empirical Study of the Relationship of Occupational Mobility to Fertility" by Dr. Hugh E. Brooks of Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, and "An Empirical Study of the Relationship of Catholic Practice and Fertility" by Doctor Franklin J. Henry of John Carroll University, Cleveland, appeared in the July issue of the "Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly."

This article presents brief descriptions of several events and developments in colleges and universities and governmental agencies and a note on the life history of American sociologist, Luther Lee Bernard who died on January 23, 1951. It reports that the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Boston University has initiated a program in criminology and correctional treatment of offenders. The program offers a general plan of study in criminology designed to be of value to those working in the fields of crime prevention, probation, probational parole, and correctional administration. Researcher Lloyd Warner of the Sociology Department of the University of Chicago has received a grant of $10,000 from the Hill Family Foundation of Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Foundation awarded him for a study of social mobility in American business. The United States Department of Agriculture has announced on June 1, 1951, that around six hundred agricultural specialists from all parts of the United States are needed to represent this country abroad in technical cooperation programs, including the Point Four program, under present plans of expansion. The Department's Office of Personnel is developing a national roster of professional agriculturists to be used by the Department, and other Federal and public international organizations, in recruiting personnel for foreign assignments.

The article presents a list of books related to sociology. Some of the books included in the list are as follows: "Handbook on Major Regional Farm Supply Purchasing Cooperatives, 1948 and 1949," by Martin A. Abrahamsen and Jane L. Scearce; "Rural Social Organization in Dent County," by Ronald B. Almack, and Lawrence M. Hepple; "Protecting Children Through County Sodium Flouride Programs," by Elin L. Anderson; "The Consolidation of Fragmented Agricultural Holdings," by Bernard Binns; "The Hired Farm Working Force-1948 and 1949," by Gladys K. Bowles, Louis J. Ducoff and Margaret Jarman Hagood; "Clinton county Health Survey," "Electricity on Farms in the Eastern Livesstock Area of Iowa," by Joe F. Davis and Paul E. Strickler; "Survey of Blood Banks in the United States and Possessions," by Frank G. Dickinson and Everett L. Welker; "Comparisons of State Physician-Population Ratios for 1938 and 1949," by Frank G. Dickinson, Charles E. Bradley and Frank V. Cargill; "Migratory Farm Workers in 1949," by Louis J. Ducoff, "Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility," by Ronald Freedman and P.K. Whelpton

Much of the current social science is based upon the idea that social change characterizes primarily only this times or this generation. This is not true. In order to understand the farm family and the family farm one must be acquainted with the fact that social and cultural change has been a perennial characteristic of the civilization. Everything is always changing in rural life, including the farm family and the family farm. Neither the family farm nor the farm family has been the same from one broad period to another from the Homeric period to date. However, the farm family and the family farm have shown a certain recurrence of patterns although under somewhat different conditions. Forms of family organization, strength of domestic institutions, and forms of social challenge have been very much the same in the primitive, the middle and the late periods of each of the three great swings of Western culture. Furthermore, the family and the family farm are components of larger organizations of culture. What happens to them is generally decisive in many larger affairs.

Studies of basic personality cover what was formerly discussed by rural sociologists under the concept of the rural mind. Rural life demonstrates three basic organizations of personality, that emphasizing the family (Homeric), that emphasizing land and homestead (Hesiodic), and that completely engulfed in the money economy (Aristophanic). At any one time different social classes in agriculture express one or the other versions of these three basic personalities. The small isolated farm groups are primarily Homeric. Others like the Pennsylvania Germans illustrate the Hesiodic. The large capitalist aggregates emphasize the Aristophanic. Western society may be divided into periods according to which of these mentalities is most dominant. At present we are in an extremely Aristophanic period. An understanding of these three mentalities will help us to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of our present rural culture. An "ideal" rural social system would seek to promote all three values, family, land and homestead, and money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article illustrates the developing family crisis in the world. The author of the article cites examples from western as well as the eastern societies of the world. Western society, of which the United States is the most extreme present manifestation, has gone through two great family crises during its history and is about to reach the maximum development of a third. An understanding of these crises and the difficulties should be very helpful in contemplating the problems of the future. In all the history of family society in China has been practically only one standard of reference one family Bible, the Confucianist system of li or moral behavior. In Hindu society, almost from its beginning to now, the Ramayana epic has been the Bible of the masses. The author discusses the family crisis in China as well as India, which represents the eastern society of the world. This article also discusses the Greek family crisis and also the Roman family crisis.

The article reports that the journal "Rural Sociology," a new editorial board takes over. Certain changes in policy are being instituted. The editors want to make the Journal now directly self supporting and independent from any subsidy so far as possible. They plan to spread the editorial responsibility over a larger number of persons so as to have several acquainted with each job in case the emergency should require the services of any individual. They hope to cooperate more closely with the Catholic Rural Life Movement to bring into direct support of our efforts all agencies attempting to promote a more permanent and lasting ruralism on the American continents. This is particularly important because the great bodies of rural French Canadians, Spanish Americans in their own Southwest, Mexicans, Central and South Americans are primarily of the Catholic faith.

Communities like other organisms, include parasitic types. A study of Littleville shows how an almost chronically parasitic community greatly improved itself during the recent depression. This is due to its long training in the field of parasitic existence which has made it more adept at exploiting such opportunities. The technique of assessing high taxes upon the outsider and of granting subventions to members of the family is definitely a recent development in Littleville. But the parasitic principle and the parasitic psychology, which had been impressed upon the Littles by state supervision and by racial differences for 300 years, undoubtedly developed this particular mechanism of parasitism to its full extent within a very short time.