The History of Sociology Trivia Quiz

The French Revolution of 1789 challenged the rigid class system of the Ancien Régime, leading to the rise of the bourgeoisie and new forms of social stratification. This provided fertile ground for analyzing class conflict, social mobility, and the impact of economic change on social relations.

It also demonstrated the immense power of collective action, when ordinary citizens rose up en masse to demand change. This highlighted the dynamics of social movements, public opinion, and the role of the masses in shaping history.

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) was a French philosopher who is considered the "father of sociology" for founding the discipline and coining the term in 1838. He believed that society could be studied using scientific methods, just like the natural sciences.

In 1838, Comte proposed a systematic approach to understanding social order and change through what he called 'positivism', the idea that knowledge should be based on observable, empirical facts. This marked a major shift in how people thought about society and laid the groundwork for sociology as a scientific discipline.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the "Communist Manifesto", a political pamphlet that became one of the most influential texts in sociology and political theory. It argued that history is shaped by class struggles, especially between the bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and the proletariat (working class). Marx predicted that capitalism would eventually be overthrown by a worker-led revolution, leading to a classless society.

The manifesto introduced key sociological ideas about power, inequality, and economic systems, laying the foundation for conflict theory and shaping future debates about social structure and change.

In politics, it allowed for the rise of Marxism which led to Communism, though human nature led to its downfall.

"Social Statics" was published in 1851 by Herbert Spencer. He applied Charles Darwin's ideas of evolution (though eight years before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species") to human society. He firmly believed that societies evolve from simple to complex forms through natural selection, a concept later eloquently summed up as "survival of the fittest". Spencer argued that social progress occurs when individuals freely compete, without government interference.

His ideas influenced early sociology by promoting a view of society as an organism with interdependent parts. Later, however, this idea was criticized for justifying inequality, though Spencer's work did help shape functionalism and the study of social structures and change.

In 1895, Émile Durkheim published "The Rules of Sociological Method", formally establishing sociology as a distinct academic discipline. He argued that society should be studied through what he called 'social facts' which were patterns of behaviour that are external to individuals but influence and guide their actions. Durkheim emphasized using scientific, empirical methods to understand social order, institutions, and collective consciousness. By insisting that sociology was not just philosophy or politics, he secured its place in universities. His work laid the foundation for structural functionalism and influenced studies of religion, education, and suicide, making him one of sociology's key founding figures.

Interestingly, the University of Chicago had already, three years earlier, established a sociology department so students could take classes in the field.

In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois published "The Souls of Black Folk", a groundbreaking (if not -shattering) work in American sociology and African American literature. In it, he introduced the concept of 'double consciousness' (maybe a concept he borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson): the idea that Black Americans must live with a dual identity: one as an American and one as a Black person, constantly aware of how they are seen by the dominant society, in the US case, Whites.

This internal conflict shapes identity and experience in a racially divided society. Du Bois's work was groundbreaking for addressing race, inequality, and systemic oppression, and it helped establish sociology as a tool for social justice and racial analysis.

In 1937, Talcott Parsons published "The Structure of Social Action", which helped establish structural functionalism as a key sociological theory. He argued that modern society is a system made up of interrelated parts, each serving a function to maintain stability and order. Parsons emphasized that individuals act according to shared values and norms, and that social institutions (like family, school, and church) help integrate people into the social system.

His work combined European theorists like Durkheim, Weber, and Pareto into an American framework.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s profoundly influenced sociology by highlighting issues of race, inequality, and systemic injustice. Sociologists began to focus more on racism, segregation, power structures, and social movements. The movement's real-world activism pushed the field to study how laws, institutions, and everyday practices maintained racial inequality. Black sociologists and activists gained recognition. New sociological voices put forth intersectional approaches to understanding social change and civil rights as central to analyzing modern society.

In 1963, Betty Friedan published her book "The Feminine Mystique". It helped launch second-wave feminism and gave momentum to feminist sociology. Friedan challenged the idea that women could find fulfillment only as wives and mothers, literally labelling this belief as "the problem that has no name".

Her work exposed widespread dissatisfaction among suburban women and sparked critical discussions about gender roles, identity, and inequality. Feminist sociology began to question traditional theories that ignored or minimized the experiences of women.

It focused on issues like patriarchy, domestic labour, and power, and how they can be shifted from a male-dominated society to a more equal one.

Pierre Bourdieu's "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste" (1979/1984) revolutionized sociology by demonstrating how individual tastes and lifestyles are deeply intertwined with social class and power, effectively bridging the micro-level of personal preference with macro-level societal structures. He introduced the concept of 'habitus', a system of durable dispositions acquired through experience, which shapes an individual's perceptions, thoughts, and actions, often unconsciously. These dispositions are formed within specific 'fields', or arenas of social competition (for example, education, art), where individuals deploy different forms of 'capital' (including economic, social, cultural, or symbolic) to gain status.

"Distinction" showed that seemingly individual choices in consumption, art, or education are actually expressions of one's position within the social hierarchy, thereby illuminating the reproduction of social inequality through cultural practices.