Although his ideas seem archaic today and he is no longer widely read, Franklin Giddings remains one of the pioneers of sociological thought and a founder of the discipline of sociology in the United States. Indeed, he is widely seen as the key figure responsible for transforming sociology from a minor branch of philosophy into an independent field of social science research. His late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century work, which emphasized quantification, empirical studies, and behavioralism, laid the groundwork for the neo-positivism championed by a later generation of U.S. sociologists.

Giddings was born in Sherman, Connecticut, in 1855 and spent his early adult life working as a reporter in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he published articles and columns on the very un-journalistic topics of social science theory and practice. In 1888, he was appointed a professor of politics at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, filling the position vacated by future...