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Auguste Comte
-Frenchman known as the father of sociology
-Believed that in order for societies to advance, social behavior had to be studied scientifically
-Coined the terms sociology and positivism
-Published his theories in a book called Positive Philosophy -
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Harriet Martineau
-Best known today for her translation of Comte's "Positive Philosophy"
-Made original contributions in the areas of research methods, political economy, and feminist theory
-Proud supporter of emancipation of both women and enslaved
peoples -
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Karl Marx
-Believed that social scientists should try to change the world rather than merely study it
-Felt great concern for the poverty and inequality suffered by the working class of his day
-Predicted that at some point all industrial societies would contain only two social classes, the "bourgeoisie" and the "proletariat"
-Believed the key to the unfolding of history was class conflict -
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Herbert Spencer
-Career became a mixture of engineering, drafting, inventing, journalism, and writing
-To explain social stability, he compared society to the human body
-Introduced a theory of social change called "Social Darwinism" -
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Booker T. Washington
-Began as a slave and became an educator after emancipation
-Founded the Tuscagee Institute in 1881
-Believed African Americans should accept segregation in return for promises of economic gains -
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Emile Durkheim
-Said societies exist because of a broad consensus, or agreement, among members of a society
-First introduced the use of statistical techniques in his research on suicide
-Showed that human social behavior must be explained by social factors rather than just psychological ones -
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Jane Addams
-Was the best known of the early female social reformers in the United States
-Cofounded Hull House in Chicago with Ellen Gates Starr
-Focused on the problems caused by the imbalance of power among social classes
-Invited sociologists from the University of Chicago to Hull House to witness firsthand the effects of industrialism on the lower class
-Became the first sociologists to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 -
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George Herbert Mead
-Worked at the University of Chicago
-Explored how our sense of self develops
-Believed our sense of self develops as we interact with our world
-Laid the foundation for the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism -
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Max Weber
-Most famous book is "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"
-Believed that an understanding of the personal intentions of people in groups can be be accomplished through the method of verstehen
-Pioneered research techniques that helped prevent personal biases from unduly affecting sociological investigations by stressing rationality and objectivity -
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Robert Ezra Park
-Worked as an aid to Booker T. Washington at the Tuscagee Institute from 1905 to 1914
-Worked at the University of Chicago and used the city of Chicago as his laboratory to study collective behavior and social interaction
-Credited with moving American sociology to a more objective methodology -
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W. E. B. Du Bois
-The first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard University
-Analyzed the sophisticated social structure of African American communities
-He was not only concerned for his race in America but for all people of African descent regardless of where they lived in the world -
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Julian Samora
-Became the first known Mexican American to earn a doctorate in sociology after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis in 1953
-Focused on civil rights and discrimination, poverty, public health, and movement along the Mexican-American border
-Founded the Mexican American Graduate Studies Program and headed the Mexican Border Studies Project