1.02 Origins of Sociology and Important Contributors

• Introduction
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• Task

Introduction

Sociology is a field that was born out of a great deal of societal change and development during the 19th Century and Industrial Revolution. During this time, people's lives were drastically changing. They were moving from farms to cities, so work no longer involved the ongoing labor associated with agriculture; it was being done in factories. Also, political revolutions in France, the United States, and Russia were changing social lives in ways that some people felt needed to be explained. With all of these changes in society, there were new and unforseen social problems that had not really been experienced before. Sociology developed as a way to explain these societal events and situations.