From the Attic of the "American Journal of Sociology": Unusual Contributions to American Sociology, 1895-1935 Author(s): Thomas James

Phelan Source: Sociological Forum, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 71-86 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/684436 . Accessed: 24/06/2013 12:27
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Sociological Forum, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1989

From the Attic of the American Journal of Sociology: Unusual Contributions to American Sociology, 1895-1935
Thomas James Phelan'

This study examines articles published in the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) from its inception in 1895 through 1935 in a search for contributions that have escaped the attention of most contemporary sociologists. The articles reviewed here provide a glimpse of a less well-known, and sometimes more unseemly, side of American sociological history. My primary focus is on the criticism of the emergent discipline, the extraordinary diversity of thought found in the early AJS, and antiquated or prescient ideas, particularly in the fields of deviance, race, and gender.
KEY WORDS: American Journal of Sociology; history of sociology; deviance; racialbias; gender.

INTRODUCTION Whose work does the true history of American sociology comprise? While sociologists are quick to criticize the adequacy of histories of elites in describing the essence of societies, when it comes to the history of sociology, names like Ross, Ward, Sumner, and Giddings come to mind, but not MacLean, Platt, Weeks, or Margold. To be sure, the intellectual tradition heralded by the first set of names is of primary importance and has well deserved the thoughtful attention of key historical reviewers such as Coser (1978), Martindale (1976), Faris (1970), and Small (1915). But should we not sift through the dustbin of sociology as well? Perhaps some fine gems have fallen among the rubbish. Did the obscure and the pathetic have anything worthwhile to say? We will not know if we have not looked.
'Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794. 71
0884-8971/89/0300-0071$06.00/0 ? 1989 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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I have examined 1628 articles that were published in the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) from its inception in 1895 through 1935. The vast majority of these articles are rarely cited. Ignoring those few papers already recognized as important to contemporary sociology, this study will focus on two categories of neglected articles -those most radically at variance, and those most closely congruent, with modern sociological viewpoints-using the theoretical orientations commonly found in contemporary sociological journals as a standard. Most of the articles selected by this procedure involve the topics of race, deviance, and gender. As they remain today, these issues were central concerns to early American sociology.

HOSTILITY TOWARD EARLY AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY A central aspect of the historical milieu of early American sociology was the hostility that has often greeted incipient disciplines. Albion Small, the founding editor of the AJS, began the first issue with the optimistic words: "Sociology has a foremost place in the thought of modern men. Approve or deplore the fact at pleasure, we cannot escape it" (Small, 1895:1). The newly created University of Chicago was, perhaps, an ideal setting for the founding of the country's first department of sociology: there sociology gained a more equal footing with other disciplines, which at older universities were already more established (Faris, 1970). Nevertheless, sociology, the early AJS, and even the University of Chicago itself were subjected to harsh criticism. Shortly after its first issue was published, the AJS received a letter that said in part:
I can look for no lasting good from a work that is conducted by an educational institution founded by the arch-robber of America and which already ... exhibits a determination to throttle free investigation of sociological or economic subjects whenever there is any danger of running counter to plutocraticinterests. (Anonymous, 1895:210)

The Bibliotheca Sacra (1896) suggested that sociology was a "passing fad" (Anonymous, 1896:509), and on the occasion of the appointment of the founding professor of sociology at the University of Buenos Aires, the dean of the faculty declared that "sociology, far from being science, was little more than empty verbiage" (Anonymous, 1906:119). These attacks continued over the years, and in 1909 two sharp critiques were published in the AJS by Henry Ford of Yale University, one of which stated:
The greatest single gain that could be made in scientific progress toward the solution of the problems with which sociology undertakes to deal, would be to ge rid of sociology since it is essentially a false start. Those who yield to its plausible pretensions go astray. (Ford, 1909:259)

By 1928, negative attitudes toward sociology were still being expressed, and one must wonder if Read Bain's statement of the prestige awarded so-

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From the Attic of the AJS

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ciology might still be endorsed in some scientific quarters today:

Sociology is notorious among the sciences for the inaccuracy,indefiniteness,and general confusion of its terms. Most physical scientists regard the science of sociology as a pious pretension and sociologists as scientific charlatans. (1928:940)

It was within this sometimes hostile intellectual environment that the American Journal of Sociology was founded in 1895. Albion Small, who was also dean of the graduate school at the University of Chicago, remained editor until just prior to his death in 1926. It was largely through Small's intense efforts that the fledgling journal was eventually able to flourish. The Eclecticism of the Early AJS The spirit of Christian reformism may have been a key influence on early American sociology (Coser, 1978), but the permissive intellectual eclecticism of Albion Small was responsible for the enormous range of viewpoints that characterized the early AJS. The broad swath of ideas then published is scarcely imaginable today. Articles such as the "Proposed Sterilization of Certain Mental Degenerates" (Rentoul, 1906), "Scum from the Melting-Pot" (Grant, 1925), and "A Modern Devil Baby" (Addams, 1914) appeared alongside pieces such as "The Institutional Character of Pecuniary Valuation" (Cooley, 1913) and "The Influence of Karl Marx on Contemporary Socialism" (Sprago, 1910). Having published 73 articles in the first 30 volumes of the AJS, Albion Small was, by far, the most prolific contributor in its history. Amid disturbingly reactionary and often blatantly racist tracts written by others, Small viewpoints. would include thoughtful articlesexpressinghis own "progressive" He even wrote favorably of Karl Marx, suggesting that Marx "was one of the few really great thinkers in the history of social science. .. I confidently predict that in the ultimate judgment of history Marx will have a place in social science analogous with that of Galileo in physical science" (1912:809, 810). Furthermore, in his presidential address to the American Sociological Society, Small scathingly criticized capitalism:
Perhaps the next generation will have learned that capitalism is not the utopia in which everyone may eat his cake and have it too. In another fifty years it may have been discovered that capitalism is a merger of famine and lottery. The majority pay for cakes they do not get and the surplusprovidesprizes for the minority. (Small, 1914:444)

However, the early AJS was far from being a journal of solely progressive viewpoints. The Sumnerian wing of sociology was also well represented. Giles offered a defense of the capitalist:
The payments he makes and the prices he may obtain are regulated by a force greater than his own. More than 400%o of all enterprisesfail, but the laborer gets his pay .... Of late, especially in the far West, there has grown up an exaggerated belief in the pow-

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Phelan er of legislation to do all kinds of things, to change the laws of nature and of human nature, to place the incompetent, the intemperate, the idle and the improvident on the same plane as the able, the temperate, the industrious, and the thrifty, in the competition of life. (1903:174, 186)

That a few might get rich off the backs of many was hardly a concern to many contributors. Platt wrote, "Do we have foolish rich? Yes, certainly, but do not let us get excited about these; they will soon returnto their proper level. From shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves is but three generations" (1925:567). Early sociology, while faced with criticism from some in the religious sector, was an object of cooptation by others. Indeed, it was even suggested implicitlythat the first sociologist was not Comte, but Jesus. ShailerMathews, who contributed 9 articles on Christian sociology to the first 2 volumes of the AJS, wrote, "By the kingdom of God Jesus meant an ideal (though progressivelyapproximated) social order in which the relation of men to God is that of sons, and (therefore) to each other, that of brothers" (1895:367). A few of the early AJS articles focus on topics of little sociological interest today, largely because they are tied to specific issues relevant to the times or because they reflect theoretical orientations that have since been rejected by a majority of the profession. The great majority of early articles, however, deal with familiar topics of sociological interest such as race and ethnicity, the family, social movements, demography, occupations, and education.2 The most researchedtopics for each 5-year period covered by this study are presented in Table I. Articles concerned with religion and general sociology were most prevalent during the first 20 years of the AJS, but, even then, they constituted only about l5Woof the total material published. In the period from 1915 to 1920, the most frequent topic was social organization. Between 1920 and 1930, articles about the nature of sociology and about methodology predominated, although nearly as many articles pertaining to race and ethnicity and to urban sociology also appeared. In the period following 1930, race and ethnicity and criminology became major interests, but no single topic of inquiry dominated the attention of early American sociologists to any great degree. Even during World War I, only 6 articles were published that directly pertained to war and conflict. Another difference between the early AJS and the modern one is also apparent from Table I. About a quarter of the articles published in the early journal were not from university sources; many of the contributors listed no institutional affiliation. In contrast, in the early 1980s, 95Wo of the first authors listed university affiliations, and the remaining 5Wo were all affiliated with research centers. I found no evidence, however, to suggest an over2See Becker (1932) for a detailed study of space apportionment in the AJS from 1895 to 1930.

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87-91

6-10 36-4031-3526-3021-2516-2011-15

1-5 Volume Table I.

Total 1981-1986

Years 1920-1925 1900-1905 1910-1915 1930-1935 1915-1920 1925-1930 1895-1900 1905-1910

Number and

10 (5%)

Percent 41 82 330 (II 32 42 32 19(2136 46 (21 of of (12%) %) (25%) (20%) %) (16%) (22%) %) (37%) Chicago University AJS

Articles 155 For (58 152 80 107 92 82 49 43 164 769 U.S. Other (53%o) by (19%o) (66%) %) (56%) (44%) (25%) Author's (80%) (47%) (57%) universities Source comparison 72 (21 55 28 31 41 42 62 (3168 399 affiliations U.S. Other and sources (23%o) %) (19%) (22%) (32%) (25%) (25%o) %) (20%) the 41 29 17 (21 18 (5 12 3 6 4 130 (2%)(3%o) %) (13%) sources (8%) (6%o) %) (2%o) (9%o) Foreign 1628 N 286 261 143 161 175 187 193 222 Topic Most Often of Social General General General Religion Religion (8 and Central (9%) (16%) (7%o) (17%o) (25%o) (8%o) %) (10%W) Methodology topic Most frequent Focus sociology sociology sociology ethnicity organization Race

10 (5%) 19 (10%) 194

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whelming tendency for the most peculiar articles in the early AJS to have originated from nonuniversity sources, although it is true that the most retrospectively esteemed contributors worked in academic environments. Another change concerning article origins is that, over time, far fewer of the articles have been written by University of Chicago authors. In the of the articles were written by such authors, first volume of the AJS, 53Wo There but by the period from 1981 through 1986, this had eroded to only 5Wo. were still, however, more papers published in the AJS from the University of Chicago than from any other institution. In summary, the range of viewpoints presented in the early AJS was truly phenomenal. While the scope of sociology has remained immense, examination of the early work indicates that the development of the discipline has been marked by the growth of a more professionalized academic perspective and at least a modest circumscription of acceptable viewpoints and emphases.

EARLY THOUGHTS ON DEVIANCE Some of the strangest articles, from today's perspective, pertain to deviance. An early piece by Howard is representative both of the moral restrictiveness of the era and of early views on the behavior of crowds shaped by the ideas of LeBon (1960):
A singular example of mental perversion, an absurd and immoral custom tenaciously held fast in mob-mind, has its genesis in the partisanzeal of athletic spectatorcrowds. I refcr to the practice of organized cheering, known in college argot as "rooting." From every aspect i is bad. It robs the athlete of his due meed of honest praise. The spontaneous burst of emotion is discounted by the artificial clamor. At best, it must be rated as a cunning suggestion intended to start contagious and irrational applause in the hypnotized mass of on-looks. It is a trap for the emotions of the unwary. (Howard, 1912:46)

Reflective of the societal and intellectual concerns of the time, early warnings against cheering are gentle in comparison to the almost hysterical polemics to be found in early sociology against masturbation:
When many children are crowded together, the contagion of masturbation is much to be feared. One child instructsanother in this vice, and a few bad spirits are enough to infect a whole school among the pupils who are ignorant of the terrible and dangerous consequences of masturbation. (Morel, 1899:79)

Another contributor pointed out the unfortunate effects of self-abuse in no uncertain terms:
It is a matter of fact that impairment of sexual organs brings with it a degrading influence upon the moral character.The boy becomes bashful, especiallyin the presence of female individuals, loses frankness, cannot look in the eyes of other people, be-

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From the Attic of the AJS comes timid, without courage and boldness. Inclination and skill for physical exercises, as well as study vanish. Disposition to idleness and to strange fancies arises, and while an ill founded self-esteem increases, the individual grows suspicious, unfriendly, and inclined to judge censoriously the demeanor of everybody toward himself. (Marra, 1900:226)

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Fortunately, the paper provided urgently needed advice on how to extinguish this dangerous activity:
Avoid too many eggs, and still more venison, aromas, truffles, drugs, and all other such alimentary substances, which have the tendency to excite the sexual organs ... clothes must not be too tight, so that the generative organs are not subject to friction during the movements of the body, nor so warm as to excite them. The bed itself ought not to be too soft and the bedclothes not too heavy .., in climbing trees it is useful to bring the most strain upon the soles of the feet set against the trunk of the tree, so that, the greatest pressure being in this direction, the danger is avoided of pressure against the thighs. (Marra, 1900:228-230)

Of course, warnings against sexuality should be viewed in the context of exaggerated beliefs concerning the widespread prevalence of sexual disorders:
Competent European observers state that 75 percent of the adult male population have or have had gonorrhea and 10-18 percent contract syphilis. It would be a conservativeestimate to state that the morbidityfrom both these infections would represent 60 percent of the adult male population in this country. (Morrow, 1907:22)

Proponents of the movement to sterilize "degenerates"were also heard in the AJS:

I would ask you to emphasize the fact that these "defective" persons are the most dangerous citizens, and especially from the procreation standpoint.... This operation (Spermectomy) would come under my division of compulsory sterilization, and would apply to lunatics, epileptics, idiots, confirmed criminals and inebriates, and habitual vagrants. (Rentoul, 1906:321)

Given the intellectual climate of the time with regard to deviance, Burgess's (1923) sophisticated study of the delinquent as a person, which rejected the prevailing physiological theories of criminology and recognized the embeddedness of delinquency in social interaction, must be considered a remarkable breakthrough.

RACIAL VIEWS IN EARLY AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY While tracts on masturbation seem amusing in retrospect, the racial bias expressed in the early AJS is appalling. Biases evident in early sociology often reflect the intellectual currents of the times; nevertheless, the indecorum of early argumentation may still come as a surprise. Much early effort was devoted to creating a hierarchy of races. Closson (1897), in a study of European races, ranked Homnoeuropaeus (Aryans) first,

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followed by Homo alpinus (shorter, darker, and roundheaded), and the Mediterranean race last. The conclusion, carefully based on data showing that Homo europaeus had greater wealth, obtained more important positions, and was more urban, was that "the law of the superiority of Homo europaeus is proven." At the turn of the century, the eugenics movement, concerned with the declining fertility of the upper classes, was becoming increasingly popular and was, in fact, quite fashionable among the educated elite. Francis Galton (1904), in a paper delivered at the sociological society meeting at London University (attended by luminaries such as Karl Pearson, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw), was convinced that through the application of eugenic principles, desired traits such as "health, energy, ability, manliness, and courteous disposition" could be fostered in the race. Galton also puzzled over such curiosities as "while most barbarous races disappear, some, like the Negro, do not" (1904:4). In an article defending slavery, H. E. Belin suggested:
That the Negro's present state of semibarbarismis the result of generations of slavery is a fallacy pure and simple. As a matter of fact slavery, so far from degrading the Negro, has actually elevated him industrially, mentally, and even morally .... Far from being maltreated indeed, not only were their physical wants supplied, not only were they well fed, abundantly clothed, comfortably housed, but their spiritual needs were also provided for. (1908:517-519)

Belin also presented his analysis of the Negro personality:

Like the child, many of his virtues are negative. He is neither grasping, nor malicious, nor vindictive. He is naturally confiding, and is easily controlled by those who have won his confidence. He is generous, warm-hearted, cheerful, and for the most part, happy-tempered and obliging. He is (also like the child) entirely without foresight and absolutely irresponsible. (1908:519)

Another study entitled "The Superiority of the Mulatto" considered the supposed inferiority of Negroes:
The Negroes recognized the superiority of their masters and attributed that superiority, as did the white man himself, to the fact of his race and color. They accepted their inferior status as a consequence of their inferiority. No Negro questioned the superior ability of the white, and probably there is no Negro today who does not subconsciously believe the white man superior. Certainly the assumption is less questioned among them than among the whites. (Reuter, 1917:101)

The greatest amount of racism in the early AJS was directed toward blacks, but other ethnicities were targets also. When it comes to the effects of alcohol, the American Indian was viewed as a greater danger than the American black:
The intoxicated Indian is bestial, almost fiendish, in his depravity. No depth of immorality, we are told, is too low for him. The lust of killing is aroused by the fire water .... The case of the Negro is unique. He is not a habitual drunkard. As a rule

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From the Attic of the AJS the Negro of the South does not use liquor in his home. He indulges in orgies of intoxication on Saturdays, on Christmas, or other holidays. Then his evil passions are released and he is prone to commit acts of violence. (Howard, 1918:67-68)

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In one of the numerous and often fascinating studies of housing in Chicago that appeared in the early AJS, Hunt provided a description of Bulgarians:
Of large stature, with a ruddy complexion, fresh from the soil, the Bulgarians come to America capable of hard service and heavy labor. Without natural aptitude for commercial activities, they are especially well adapted for the labor gangs and are well able to endure the hard rough work in our industrial plants. (1910:148)

While it is difficult to say which early AJS article would qualify as the most racist ever published, the piece "Scum from the Melting Pot" by the California State Senator Edwin Grant merits consideration:
The prosperitymade possible by our forefathers has lured the parasitesof Europe-the scum that could so well have been eliminated from the melting-pot. When the pot begins to boil, it does not take the scum long to rise to the surface. The more unassimilable the elements, the greater the amount of scum. Much of it can be skimmed off, but only after it has tainted the entire mixture. It is the scum from the meltingpot which we should eliminate at all costs. (1925:643)

As if to prove his point, Senator Grant appended to the end of his AJS article a lengthy list of names signed to a legal petition to repeal prohibition. According to Grant, many of the names are foreign, proving that foreign "scum"were attempting to degenerate America. Many sociologists felt it was necessary to consider the ranking of the races in a purely scientific manner. Woolston (1916) sent 25 questionnaires (of which 10 were returned) to leading experts asking them to rank 10 ethnic groups on each of 10 personality traits. Overall the ethnic groups were ranked as follows: native white Americans, Germans, English, Hebrews, Scandinavians, Irish, French, Slavs, Southern Italians, and Negroes. White Americans were ranked first in intellectual ability, cooperation, leadership, and efficiency, while Germans ranked first on self-control, moral integrity, and perseverance, and Hebrews were first on aspiration. Southern Italians and Negroes were ranked ninth and tenth respectively on all traits except sympathy, on which Negroes were second (after the Irish) and Southern Italians were third. Of particular interest is the ironic conclusion of the study:
The object of this study is to urge upon sociologists the wider collection of data and its precise arrangement, so that expressions of personal opinion may yield to widely accepted statements of fact, and that general affirmation may give place to quantitative estimates. (Woolston, 1916:390)

Ideas about the possibility of racial equality were rare in early sociological thinking, but they appeared occasionally. It was generally accepted that greaterbrain weight was a sign of intelligence and that blacks (and wom-

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en) possessing, on average, smaller brains must be inferior to white males. Later it was paradoxically suggested that, in fact, Asians have larger brains than whites. The well-known sociologist Edward A. Ross traveled to China and provided the following observation:
The impression left on my mind by the evidence I was able to gather is that if you mark the white race 100 on a scale of which the lowest races constitute the zero, the Chinese are certainly not lower than 85 and are quite possibly entitled to a mark of 100. (1911:727)

Griffith Taylor extended the radical notion of the possible equality of races to encompass almost all of humanity:
However, as the writer has stated elsewhere, apart from the Negroes he can see no reason for saying that one nation or race in any important aspect is better than any other. (1931:81)

Many articles remained fundamentally racist, but a gradual palliation of racist notions is evident over time. In a 1906 book review, the noted sociologist Charles Ellwood accepted that the author's premise of "the natural inferiority of the Negro as a race"was supported by the "weight of scientific authority," but he wisely refused to accept the conclusion that American Negroes are "unimprovable, uneducable, and will be extinct within a generation." In his paper "The Negro: Is He a Biological Inferior?" James M. Reinhardt summed up the predominant attitude toward blacks in the early part of this century:
Certainly to the white man in America the Negro appears inferior. He is black; his lips are thick; his nose is broad and low; his hair is kinky. He seems generally shiftless. His achievements do not loom high in comparison. Besides, there is what appears to be a natural feeling of contempt for him. (1927:249-250)

He went on, however, to argue against biological notions concerning the alleged inferiority of blacks. He even included statistics showing that Northern blacks scored higher than Southern whites on army intelligence tests. Reinhardt concluded, "The preponderance of evidence is on the side of superiority of opportunity rather than superiority of inborn race equipment" (1927:257). A number of suggestions were published in the AJS on how to deal with what was known as the "Negro problem." Jenks (1916) felt blacks could best be helped by the introduction of a law making miscegenation a felony. In a paper sympathetic to blacks, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1908), who is now regarded as an early radical feminist, argued that unemployed blacks should be enlisted into a respectable army of workers. While far outnumbered by contributions that were blatantly racist, a number of sociologists provided good critiques of assumptions of the natural inferiority of nonwhite races. George Howard, in a modern and thought-

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ful article, wrote:

In the end the solution of the Southern race problem will come chiefly through education; but it will come primarily through the education of the white race.... Under the eye of the expert, the existing differences in mental or moral status between brown and yellow, black and white, oriental and occidental, appear as the resultants of variations in environment, institutions, experience,and opportunity. There is no sound reason for believing that the Negro does not share in this equal potential chance for civilization. (1917:577, 580)

Howard's revolutionary ideas soon received strong support from Ellsworth Faris (1918) in his classic paper "The Mental Capacity of Savages" and from the work of the noted anthropologist Margaret Mead (1926) who, early in her career, published an extremely sophisticated and thoughtful paper in the AJS concerning the problem of racial bias in intelligence testing. The stage was now set for a vastly more sophisticated sociological view of racial differences. THE SOCIOLOGY OF WOMEN While the women's movement remained active at the turn of the century, progress toward women's suffrage was flagging, and the ideas of many Americans inclined more toward those expressed by the young Austrian philosopher Otto Weininiger (1905). His treatise Sex and Character had just been translated into English and was reviewed for the AJS by W. I. Thomas, who provided the following quotes:
No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them .... Woman is neither high-minded nor low-minded, strong-minded nor weak-minded. She is the opposite of all these, mind cannot be predicated of her at all; she is mindless .... The woman of the highest standard is immeasurably beneath the man of the lowest standard.... It is true that woman has the gift of speech, but she has not the art of talking; she converses (flirts) or chatters, but she does not talk .... There is no female genius, and there never has been one (not even amongst the masculine women of history)... and there never can be one.... A female genius is a contradiction in terms, for genius is simply intensified, perfectly developed, universally conscious maleness. (Cited in Thomas, 1906:843-844)

Not content simply to attack women, the anti-Semitic Weininiger proceeded to equate Judaism with femininity. Sexist ideas, however, were not confined to European philosophy. The early American academic journals also abounded in sexist notions. An article called "The Woman Peril in American Education" (Chadwick, 1914) appeared in Educational Review and was summarized in the AJS as follows:
The training of our boys in whom force of character is a first essential is entrusted to women. As a result they are made emotional, illogical, and non-combative. Men and women are essentially different. Neither can wholly understand the other. The influence of women teachersdoes violence to the boy's nature. (Anonymous, 1914:137)

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In spite of the prominence of sexist ideas in the intellectual milieu of the time, and in stark contrast with the essentially racist views held by many sociologists and other Americans, the early AJS can be considered a bastion of support for early feminism. Part of this support undoubtedly resulted from the influence of Marion Talbot, the dean of women at the Universityof Chicago and an energetic proponent of women's rights, who was also a founding member of the AJS editorial board (Rosenberg, 1982). The University of Chicago itself was the first academic institution to offer equal pay to female scholars (Faris, 1970) and early in this century had more female undergraduates than male ones. Sexist polemics were absent from the published contributions to the AJS, numerous progressive articles concerned with gender were printed, and women were frequent contributors. In fact, many of the journal's finest and most methodologically sophisticated contributions were from women. The important and interesting series of articles on Chicago housing conditions was written by women (e.g., Hughes, 1914; Walker, 1915), and some excellent participant-observational studies that provide fascinating illustrations of the dismal turn-of-the-century employment conditions in department stores (MacLean, 1899), sweatshops (MacLean, 1903), and restaurants (Tanner, 1907) were conducted by women. Another noteworthy article was Dorothy Thomas's (1929) excellent work on the use of statistics in social research. One study of particular interest is the investigation of the variability of the sexes conducted by Helen Montague and Leta Hollingworth (1914). They point out that prior to Darwin women were believed more variable than men and that variation was a sign of inferiority. After Darwin concluded that males were more variable than females, "variation was now no longer regarded as a sign of inferiority, but as an advantage and a characteristic affording the greatest hope for progress"(1914:335). The authors undertake a careful and sophisticated statistical analysis to demonstrate that there is no difference in the amount of anatomical variabilitybetween men and women. They conclude: "Men have apparentlybeen willing to recognize as a cause of women's inferior attainment almost any factor except the most obvious and incontestable one, i.e., that they have borne and reared the young and men have not" (1914:369). It should be noted that the work contributed by women tended to be more quantitative and more often employed statistical techniques than that submitted by men. In this sense, the contributions by women tended to be path breaking in early sociology. If there is a sexist element in the history of American sociology, it is not attributable to the AJS, but to the profession at large, which has forgotten much of the work conducted by women in spite of its quality. This is not to say that the men who published in the AJS were unsympathetic to the plight of women. W. I. Thomas wrote:

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From the Attic of the AJS The world of modern intellectual life is in reality a white man's world. Few women and perhaps no blacks have ever entered this world in the fullest sense. To enter it in the fullest sense would be to be in it at every moment from the time of birth to the time of death, and to absorb it unconsciously and consciously, as the child absorbs language. When something like this happens, we shall be in a position to judge of the mental efficiency of woman and the lower races. At present we seem justified in inferring that the differences in mental expression are no greater than they should be in view of the existing differences in opportunity.... Certain it is that no civilization can remain the highest if another civilization adds to the intelligence of its men the intelligence of its women. (1907:469)

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POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SOCIOLOGICAL HISTORY There are many other fine articles of potential contemporary interest in our earlier literature. To name a few, MacClintock (1901) presents a fascinating study of feuds in the Kentucky mountains, Vincent (1904) discusses the Hammurabi legal code of Babylon, and Margold (1926) presents a comprehensive review of sex practices in numerous tribes around the world. In one of the few truly humorous contributions to the AJS, Weeks (1917) anticipates Gans's (1971) well-known article on the functions of poverty. In just about every area studied today, there are relevant articles published earlier. This work provides a potential plethora of seminal ideas and variant perspectives. Many early ideas have come to fruition in later years. In our early history, occupations were being ranked on prestige, and rankings were being compared cross-nationally (Davis, 1927); world-systems theory was being developed (McKenzie, 1927); the idea of life as a drama was explored (Morgan, 1929); quantitative studies on the death penalty and homicide were conducted (MacDonald, 1910); fatigue was being related to industrial accidents (Bogardus, 1911); boundary lines on social phenomena were considered (Gillette, 1925); and children's occupational aspirations were being related to their father's careers (Woods, 1913). Even among the "jumble of insane babble" of Weininiger's (1905) sexist treatise, W. I. Thomas (1906) found the roots of androgyny research. While these papers and others are rarely cited, they reflect many of the trends and developments in social thought that, having grown stronger over time, are the underpinnings of modern sociological research and theory. A number of early contributions to American sociology may seem amateurish, offensive, or even absurd from today's perspective. Yet it is possible that much of what we publish today will seem equally inane 80 years hence. And on a different note, which brilliant ideas of today will ultimately be forgotten? It is through reevaluations of historical thought that these ideas can be rediscovered. As Cicero put it, "to ignore what happened before your birth is to remain always a child."

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84

Phelan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is especially grateful for the encouragement he has received from Lewis Coser and Kenneth Feldman. He also wishes to thank Stephen Cole, Henrika Kuklick, Jo Phelan, Andrea Tyree, Richard Williams, and the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful suggestions and comments.

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