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The following events related tosociology occurred in the 1950s. This was a critical decade for the publication of a number of important works in sociology, both academic and popular literature. Women first started to have success within the study of sociology in this decade; the first woman president was elected to lead theAmerican Sociological Association in this period.

• Theodor Adorno'sThe Authoritarian Personality is published.^[1]
• George Homans'sThe Human Group is published.
• Thomas Humphrey Marshall'sCitizenship and Social Class.
• Richard Titmuss'The Problems of Social Policy is published.
• British Journal of Sociology launched.
• Sociology viewed as a Social Philosophy at theUniversity of Santo Tomas is initiated by Fr. Valentin Marin with Criminology, followed by A.W. Salt andMurray Bartlett atUniversity of the Philippines and by Clyde Helfin atSilliman University.

• Theodor Adorno'sMinima Moralia is published.
• Maurice Duverger'sPolitical Parties is published.
• Theodor Geiger'sSocial Mobility within the Danish Middle-Class is published.
• Rosa Luxemburg'sThe Accumulation of Capital is published.
• C. Wright Mills'White Collar: The American Middle Classes is published.
• Talcott Parsons'The Social System is published.
• Robert C. Angell serves as president of theASA.
• Society for the Study of Social Problems is founded.
• British Sociological Association is founded byMorris Ginsberg and others

• Sociology is banned by communist authorities in China and is labeled as a bourgeois pseudoscience.
• Hans Jurgen Eysenck'sScientific Study of Personality is published.
• Melville J. Herskovits'sEconomic Anthropology: A study in Comparative Economics is published.
• Robert E. Park'sHuman Communities is published.
• Talcott Parsons' andEdward Shils'Towards a general theory of action is published.
• Philippine Sociological Society is founded as a non-stock, non-profit professional association that is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Alfred Radcliffe-Brown'sThe Structure and Function ofprimitive society is published.
• Dorothy Swaine Thomas'The Salvage is published.
• Dorothy Swaine Thomas serves as the first woman president of theAmerican Sociological Association.

• Morris Ginsberg'sThe Idea of Progress: A Revaluation is published.
• Morris Ginsberg'sOn the Diversity of Morals is published.
• Alfred Kinsey'sSexual Behaviour in the Human Female is published.
• C. Wright Mills'Character and Social Structure is published.
• Ludwig Wittgenstein'sPhilosophical Investigations is published.
• Max Weber'sThe Sociology of Religion is published.
• Samuel A. Stouffer serves as president of theASA.

• Lewis Coser'sThe Functions of Social Conflict is published.
• Hans Jurgen Eysenck'sPsychology of Politics is published.
• David Glass'Social Mobility in Britain is published.
• David Glass'Trend and Pattern of Fertility in Britain is published.
• Alvin Ward Gouldner'sPatterns of Industrial Bureaucracy is published.
• Edmund Leach'sPolitical Systems of Highland Burma is published.
• C. Wright Mills'Mass Society and Liberal Education is published.
• Siegfried Frederick Nadel'sNupe Religion is published.
• Talcott Parsons'Essays in Sociological Theory is published.
• Florian Znaniecki serves as president of theAmerican Sociological Association.
• Thomas Humphrey Marshall becomes Chair of Sociology at theLSE

• Theodor Adorno'sPrisms is published.
• Gordon Allport'sBecoming is published.
• Milovan Djilas'The New Class is published.
• Lucien Goldmann'sThe Hidden God; a study of Pascal and Racine is published.
• Louis Hartz'sThe Liberal Tradition in America
• George Alexander Kelly'sThe Psychology of Personal Constructs is published.
• Paul Lazarsfeld'sPersonal Influence is published.
• Herbert Marcuse'sEros and Civilization is published.
• Joan Woodward'sThe Dockworker is published.
• Barbara Wootton'sFoundations of Wage Policy is published.
• Leopold Von Wiese retires as chairperson of theGerman Society for Sociology and is succeeded byHelmuth Plessner.

• Vere Gordon Childe'sMan Makes Himself is published.
• Viola Klein's andAlva Myrdal'sWomen's Two Roles: Home and Work is published.
• David Lockwood'sSome Remarks on "The Social System" is published.
• Charles Wright Mills'sThe Power Elite is published.
• Pitirim Sorokin'sFads and Foibles in Modern Sociology and Related Sciences is published.
• Otto Stammer'sFunctions in the Party Unit is published.
• Asher Tropp'sSchool teachers : the growth of the teaching profession in England and Wales from 1800 to the present day is published.
• Max Weber'sThe Soteriology of the Underprivileged is published.
• November 4 - The use of force by theSoviet Union to destroy theHungarian Uprising turns many doctrinalMarxists away from theMarxist-Leninist model.

• Hans Jurgen Eysenck'sDynamics of Anxiety and Hysteria is published.
• Edward Franklin Frazier'sBlack Bourgeoisie is published.
• Terrence Morris'sThe Criminal Area: A study in Ecology is published.
• Stanislaw Ossowski'sClass Structure in the Social Consciousness is published.
• Karl Polanyi'sTrade and Markets in the Early Empires is published.
• Karl Popper'sThe Poverty of Historicism is published.
• Alfred Radcliffe-Brown'sA Natural Science of Society is published.
• Jean-Paul Sartre'sThe Problem of Method is published.
• Victor Turner'sSchism and Continuity in an African Society is published.
• Karl Wittfogel'sOriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power is published.
• Michael Young's andPeter Willmott'sFamily and Kinship in East London
• Revised edition ofRobert K. Merton'sSocial Theory and Social Structure is published.
• Robert K. Merton serves as president of theASA.

• Simone de Beauvoir'sThe Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is published.
• Georges Gurvitch'sThe Spectrum of Time is published.
• Fritz Heider'sThe Psychology of Interpersonal Relations is published.
• David Lockwood'sBlackcoated worker : a study in class consciousness is published.
• Helen Merrell Lynd'sOn Shame and the Search for Identity is published.
• C. Wright Mills'sThe Causes of World War 3 is published.
• Gunnar Myrdal'sBeyond the Welfare State is published.
• Irene B. Taeuber'sThe Population of Japan is published.
• Richard Titmuss'Essays on the Welfare State is published.
• Michael Young'sThe Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870–2023: An Essay On Education and Equality is published.
• The Jewish Journal of Sociology is established in London,Maurice Freedman becomes the first editor.

• Oliver Cox'sFoundations of Capitalism is published.
• Ralf Dahrendorf'sClass and Class Conflict in an Industrial Society is published.
• Ernest Gellner'sWords and Things is published.
• Erving Goffman'sPresentation of Self in Everyday Life is published.
• Morris Janowitz'sSociology and the Military Establishment is published.
• Oscar Lewis'Five Families; Mexican Case Studies In The Culture Of Poverty is published.
• C. Wright Mills'sThe Sociological Imagination is published.
• Geoffrey Duncan Mitchell'sSociology : the study of social systems is published.
• Karl Popper'sThe Logic of Scientific Discovery is published.
• Barbara Wootton'sSocial Science and Social Pathology is published.
• Kingsley Davis serves as president ofASA.
• Barbara Wootton becomes president of theBritish Sociological Association.
• Helmuth Plessner retires as chairperson of theGerman Society for Sociology and is succeeded byTheodor Adorno

• April 27:William F. Ogburn
• May 20:Alfred Schütz

• Interpretations of Weber's liberalism
• Social Problems (journal)

• 1950s in science
• Sociology timelines

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