Artifacts from a time when Sociology roomed with Economics…at least at Harvard. But make no mistake, economics was paying the rent back in that day.
One presumes the course text was Thomas Nixon Carver’s book of course readings (over 800 pages!): Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905.
The teaching assistant for the course was Carl William Thompson (1879-1920). After receiving an A.M. from the University of South Dakota in 1903, he added a Harvard A.M. in 1904 where he had an appointment as Assistant in Elocution. He re-entered Harvard graduate school in 1908 as a professor of economics and sociology and director of the School of Commerce at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. He passed his general exam on June 2, 1909. In his application for candidacy for the Ph.D. he wrote “Am teaching a course in General Sociology this year, based on Carver’s ‘Sociology & Social Progress’, Ward, Spencer etc.” [Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics Division Archives. PhD. Material, Box 3, Folder “Ph.D. (illegible)”]. There is no indication that he completed the other requirements for the Ph.D. in his file. From Harvard Thompson was the director of the bureau of research in agricultural economics and associate professor of economics at the University of Minnesota. In May 1913 he accepted a position in the rural organization service of the U.S. department of agriculture. He died of influenza in 1920.
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Sociology exams from earlier years.
1901-02 (taught by T. N. Carver)
1902-03 (taught by T. N. Carver and W. Z. Ripley)
1903-04 (taught by T. N. Carver)
1904-05 (taught by T. N. Carver and J. A. Field) Includes the reading list for the course and additional biographical information.
1905-06 (taught by T. N. Carver)
1906-07 (taught by J. A. Field)
1907-08 (taught by T. N. Carver)
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Course Enrollment
1908-09
Economics 3. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. Thompson. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.
Total 42: 7 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 6 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1908-09
- Can social progress be defined in terms of human well-being and, at the same time, in terms of the universal evolutionary process? Explain.
- Are human interests harmonious as antagonistic, and what is the relation of this question to the problem of evil?
- How does military life, in different stages of social development, operate as a factor in human selection.
- What are some of the leading factors tending toward, (a) race improvement, (b) race deterioration, at the present time in the United States?
- Discuss the probable future of ceremonial institutions as described by Spencer.
- How does the transition from the militant to the industrial type of society affect the status of women?
- Trace briefly the historical relationship among the leading professions, as set forth by Spencer.
- Discuss briefly, territory, race, creed, and occupation, as bases of group consciousness, together with some of the results of each special form of group consciousness.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1908-09.
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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1908-09
- What, according to Spencer, is the relation between the development of domestic institutions and the economizing of individual life?
- How do you distinguish between passive and active adaptation? Give illustrations.
- Discuss the views of Galton and Pearson on the social aspects of biological selection.
- What, according to Tarde, is the place of imitation as a social factor?
- Compare Kidd and Buckle on the relation of religion to progress.
- State, in brief, and criticize Spencer’s sociological theory of morals.
- State the democratic and republican theories of representation and the application of each to the conditions of modern government.
- Would you draw any line between those industries which are suitable for government enterprise and those which are not? If so, where? If not, why not?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 34.
Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.