British Sociology's Lost Biological Roots

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 1-16

3. Part I

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Political Economy, the BAAS, and Sociology

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 19-42

4. Part II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43

      PDF

   2. Francis Galton and the Science of Eugenics

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 45-69

   3. Patrick Geddes’ Biosocial Science of Civics

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 70-97

   4. L. T. Hobhouse’s Evolutionary Philosophy of Reform

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 98-120

5. Part III

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121

      PDF

   2. The Origins and Growth of the Sociological Society

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 123-146

   3. The End of Biological Sociology in Britain

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 147-169

6. Conclusion

   1. Conclusion

      • Chris Renwick

      Pages 170-182

7. Back Matter

   Pages 183-240

   PDF

A new and innovative account of British sociology's intellectual origins that uses previously unknown archival resources to show how the field's forgotten roots in a late nineteenth and early twentieth-century debate about biology can help us understand both its subsequent development and future potential.

• biology
• philosophy
• reform
• society
• sociology

'This is a ground-breaking intellectual history of British sociology.' - Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

'Renwick's recovery of the dynamic origins of British sociology represents a most welcome addition to contemporary social thought

well beyond the historical details. The book will be of considerable interest for both historians of science and sociologists, especially those at the graduate level interested in the connection between biology and science.' - Canadian Journal of Sociology

'Renwick's book is clearly written [and] well documented . . . As Steve Fuller correctly says in his Foreword, "This is history of science at its best."' - Contemporary Sociology

'By highlighting important historical relations between the projects of political economy, eugenics-biometrics, botany and zoology, Herbert Spencer's social philosophy, social reformism and journalism, and the longstanding search for a science of sociology, Renwick's book makes an important contribution to the interpretive aspect of the nineteenth-century problem.' - Ether Wave Propaganda, blog

• University of York, UK

  Chris Renwick

CHRIS RENWICK Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York, UK.

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