Academic economics and sociology were much more like siblings than kissing-cousins at the turn of the twentieth century. Long a vice-president of the American Economic Association, Franklin H. Giddings went on to become a president of the American Sociological Association.
Frank H. Hankins wrote the entry on Franklin H. Giddings for the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1968).
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GIDDINGS, Franklin Henry, 1855-
Born in Sherman, Conn., 1855; prepared for College at the High School at Great Barrington, Mass.; two years at Union College, 1873-75; left College to take charge of the Goshen ( Conn.) Academy; entered newspaper life in 1876, and continued as editor and editorial writer on various journals until 1888; A.B. (Union College) with reference back to the Class of 1877, 1888; A.M. 1889; Ph D., 1897; Lecturer on Political Science at Bryn Mawr, 1888; Associate, 1890; Associate Professor, 1891; Professor, 1892; Lecturer on Sociology at Columbia, 1890-93; Professor of Sociology, 1894-
FRANKLIN HENRY GIDDINGS, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at Columbia, was born in Sherman, Connecticut, March 25, 1855. He is a son of the Rev. Edward Jonathan Giddings, a well-known Congregational clergyman of Massachusetts, the author of American Christian Rulers. The family goes back in this country to George Giddings, who came from St. Albans, England, in 1635, and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The Rev. Edward J. Giddings married Rebecca Jane Fuller, a descendant of Edward Fuller, one of the Mayflower pioneers. Franklin Henry Giddings received his early training and education under the strict guidance of his mother and father, and was also instructed in surveying and drafting by his grandfather, a prominent citizen of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. After a preparatory course at the High School at Great Barrington, he entered Union College in 1873. He left College in 1875 to take charge of the Academy at Goshen, Connecticut, but continued his studies in private, covering much more ground than was required for graduation. In 1888 he received from Union College the degree of Bachelor of Arts, with reference back to the Class of 1877 in full standing. While at College he took in addition to the required studies a portion of the engineering course. In 1876 he entered newspaper life as Associate Editor of the Winsted (Connecticut) Herald. During 1878 he was an editorial writer on the Republican of Springfield, Massachusetts, and his work there, coupled with excess of private study, resulted in a year’s enforced rest from active labor, which was spent in studying political economy and law. He resumed newspaper work in 1879 on the Staff of the Berkshire Courier, and remained there for two years, when he became Editor of the New Milford, Connecticut, Gazette. During 1882 he served on the Town School Committee of Great Barrington. In 1884 he returned to Springfield as editorial writer and literary critic of the Union. He was a strong supporter of Mr. Cleveland’s candidacy during the campaign of 1884, and at the risk of losing position and salary positively refused to write editorials favoring the candidacy of James G. Blaine. In 1885 he conducted an investigation and reported to the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor on profit-sharing, and in the following year left the Union to become the Editor of Work and Wages at Springfield. During his years of newspaper work his leisure time had been occupied in study. His first appointment as Instructor came in 1888, when Bryn Mawr College appointed him Lecturer on Political Science. In 1889 he was made Associate, in the following year Associate Professor, and in 1892 Professor. Since 1890 he had also been Lecturer on Sociology in the Faculty of Political Science at Columbia, and in 1894 he left Bryn Mawr on a call from Columbia to its Chair of Sociology. He published between 1885 and 1895 many articles and monographs on economic and sociological theory. In 1896 appeared his first book, The Principles of Sociology [1896 edition; reprint with corrections from 1913], which met with instant success, and has been translated into French, Spanish and Russian. This was followed in 1897 by The Theory of Socialization, which also met with immediate recognition and has been translated into Italian; and in 1898 by The Elements of Sociology [reprint published in 1918], Professor Giddings married, November 8, 1876, Elizabeth Patience Hawes of Great Barrington. They have three children. He is a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, of which he has been Vice-President since 1890, the Authors, Barnard and Century Clubs, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Economic Association, of which he was first Vice-President in 1896-1897, and L’Institut International de Sociologie of Paris. He is a sound-money Democrat in politics.
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Giddings Bibliography by Robert Bannister
12/29/00
Bannister, Robert C. Sociology and Scientism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), chs.4. 5
Camic, Charles, “The statistical turn in American social science: Columbia University, 1890 to 1915,” American Sociological Review 59 (Oct. ’94): 773-805
Davids, Leo. “Franklin H. Giddings: Forgotten Pioneer.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 4 (1968): 62-73.
Gillin, John L. “Giddings,” American Masters of Social Science, ed. Howard Odum, pp. 191-230. New York, 1927
Hankins, Frank. “Franklin H. Giddings.” AJS 37 (1931): 349-67.
Lichtenberger, James P. “Franklin H. Giddings.” Sociology and Social Research 16 (1932): 316-21.
Northcott, Clarence H. “Giddings,” An Introduction to the History of Sociology, ed. Harry E. Barnes. Chicago, 1948.
Northcott, Clarence H. “Sociological Theories of Franklin H. Giddings.” AJS 24 (1918): 1-23.
Tenney, Alvin. “Franklin H. Giddings.” Columbia University Quarterly 23 (1931): 319-21.
Source: Written by Robert Bannister, Swarthmore College (emeritus).