Produced by Julie Barkley, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
SOCIOLOGY AND MODERN SOCIAL PROBLEMS
BY
CHARLES A. ELLWOOD, PH. D.
Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri
PREFACE
This book is intended as an elementary text in sociology as applied tomodern social problems, for use in institutions where but a short timecan be given to the subject, in courses in sociology where it is desiredto combine it with a study of current social problems on the one hand,and to correlate it with a course in economics on the other. The book isalso especially suited for use in University Extension Courses and inTeachers' Reading Circles.
This book aims to teach the simpler principles of sociology concretelyand inductively. In Chapters I to VIII the elementary principles ofsociology are stated and illustrated, chiefly through the study of theorigin, development, structure, and functions of the family consideredas a typical human institution; while in Chapters IX to XV certainspecial problems are considered in the light of these generalprinciples.
Inasmuch as the book aims to illustrate the working of certain factorsin social organization and evolution by the study of concrete problems,interpretation has been emphasized rather than the social factsthemselves. However, the book is not intended to be a contribution tosociological theory, and no attempt is made to give a systematicpresentation of theory. Rather, the student's attention is called tocertain obvious and elementary forces in the social life, and he is leftto work out his own system of social theory.
To guide the student in further reading, a brief list of selectreferences in English has been appended to each chapter. Methodologicaldiscussions and much statistical and historical material have beenomitted in order to make the text as simple as possible. These can befound in the references, or the teacher can supply them at hisdiscretion.
The many authorities to whom I am indebted for both facts andinterpretations of facts cannot be mentioned individually, except that Iwish to express my special indebtedness to my former teachers, ProfessorWillcox of Cornell and Professors Small and Henderson of the Universityof Chicago, to whom I am under obligation either directly or indirectlyfor much of the substance of this book. The list of references will alsoindicate in the main the sources of whatever is not my own.