This is an age of great calamities. War and revolution, famine and pestilence, are again rampant on this planet, and they still exact their deadly toll from suffering humanity. Calamities influence every moment of our existence: our mentality and behavior, our social life and cultural processes. Like a demon, they cast their shadow upon every thought we think and every action we perform.

In this classic volume, Sorokin attempts to account for the effects these calamities exert on the mental processes, behavior, social organization, and cultural life of the population involved. In what way do famine and pestilence, war and revolution tend to modify our mind and conduct, our social organization and cultural life? To what extent do they succeed in this, and when and why do they prove less effective? What are the causes of these calamities, and what are the ways out?

In dealing with these problems Sorokin tries to give a detailed description of the typical effects of famine and pestilence, war and revolution, such as have repeatedly occurred in all major catastrophes of this kind. To use academic language, he attempts to formulate the principal uniformities regularly manifested during such calamities. This book is a forgotten masterpiece of explanation and prediction. It opened new fields of study and broadened the scope of existing specialties

This is a new release of the original 1950 edition.

A SYSTEMATIC SOURCE BOOK IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY EDITED BY PITIRIM A. SOROKIN Professor of Sociology Harvard University CARLE C. ZIMMERMAN Associate Professor of Sociology University of Minnesota AND CHARLES . G A Lf I 1 Chief of the Division of Farm Populatjjo aad Rural Life U. S, Department of Agriculture MINNEAPOLIS THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS 1930 DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT WHO IN APPOINTING THE COUNTRY LIFE COMMISSION DECLARED, THE GREAT RURAL INTERESTS ARE HUMAN INTERESTS AND GOOD CROPS ARE OF LITTLE VALUE TO THE FARMER UNLESS THEY OPEN THE DOOR TO A GOOD KIND OF LIFE ON THE FARM. DEDICATED ALSO TO SIR HORACE PLUNKETT WHO GAVE TO THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC FORMULA, BETTER FARMING, BETTER BUSINESS, BETTER LIVING, A DICTUM THAT SUMMARIZES THE BASES OF THE COUNTRY LIFE MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. DEDICATED ALSO TO LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNTRY LIFE COMMISSION, WHOSE DEEP INSIGHT INTO THE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER SHAPED THE REPORT OF THE COUNTRY LIFE COMMISSION INTO A DOCUMENT OF PRINCIPLES OUT OF WHICH HAS DEVELOPED RURAL SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES. PREFACE IN THE main these volumes are self - explanatory and therefore need no preface. However, the editors plan of the Source Bool was influenced to such an extent by several considerations that they deem it wise to acquaint their readers with some of the per sonal motives that lie behind the work. The editors have been moved by the following considerations Human society through out its history-in its origins, forms, activities, processes, growth, evolution-has been so largely under the pressure of agricultural and rural forces that up to the present sociology as a science ofsociety has virtually been the sociology of rural life. A world view of the sociology of rural life is important for the develop ment of the science. In order to balance the vogue of agricultural economics as an educational discipline and a guide to public action in America, major emphasis is now required upon a sound rural sociology. There is need that the content of rural sociology, whether presented in texts or lying in the popular mind, should contain facts of an indubitably sociological character. There is need in the textual organization of the facts of rural sociology for a resolutely scientific methodology. In the training of American rural sociologists there is need for a broad acquaintance with the rural sociological thought and theory of Europe and Asia. And, finally, in this era of American teaching, research, and extension of rural sociological facts and theory and in this period of experi mental agrarian legislation, a systematic source book world-wide in scope is timely. Now let us discuss these points very briefly. A glance at the bases of general sociology shows the importance of the rural world in the present development of human society. This importance is due, not to the well-known fact that the greater part of the human race is still agricultural and rural, but to the fact that the dominance of industrial forces and the prestige of the city are relatively a matter of yesterday and that rural habit is still the core of human behavior the world over. Rural sociology in America has grown to large proportions, in a night as it were, on soil prepared by agricultural science. It is not to be marveled at that textbooks in rural sociology in America vii viii SOURCE BOOK INRURAL SOCIOLOGY are still quite provincial, not even being developed on the geo graphic basis of the entire country. Agricultural sciences, such as soil chemistry, bacteriology, horticulture, and entomology, have the benefit of European experience. It is scarcely necessary to state that rural sociology needs to benefit from similar world experience...

This is an analysis of the nature, causes and consequences of the crisis of modern society. Professor Sorokin asserts that the whole of modern culture is undergoing a period of transition brought on by the struggle between the forces of the largely outworn materialistic order and the emerging, creative forces of a new idealistic order. On the outcome of this struggle, the author contends, rests the progress and survival of mankind.

This is an age of great calamities. War and revolution, famine and pestilence, are again rampant on this planet, and they still exact their deadly toll from suffering humanity. Calamities influence every moment of our existence: our mentality and behavior, our social life and cultural processes. Like a demon, they cast their shadow upon every thought we think and every action we perform. In this classic volume, Sorokin attempts to account for the effects these calamities exert on the mental processes, behavior, social organization, and cultural life of the population involved. In what way do famine and pestilence, war and revolution tend to modify our mind and conduct, our social organization and cultural life? To what extent do they succeed in this, and when and why do they prove less effective? What are the causes of these calamities, and what are the ways out? In dealing with these problems Sorokin tries to give a detailed description of the typical effects of famine and pestilence, war and revolution, such as have repeatedly occurred in all major catastrophes of this kind. To use academic language, he attempts to formulate the principal uniformities regularly manifested during such calamities. This book is a forgotten masterpiece of explanation and prediction. It opened new fields of study and broadened the scope of existing specialties.

Pitirim Sorokin rose from a peasant childhood in Russia to become a major figure in the history of sociology. However, he was considered both a pioneer and an outcast. This text includes essays by this controversial thinker which range from his early Russian years to his final work in the 1960s. His early American works are considered to have opened new vistas in rural sociology, social stratification, and theory, and won him the chairmanship of sociology at Harvard University. A constant innovator, Pitirim next explored the vast expanse of human affairs, and outlined the surfacing crisis of modernity. At the Harvard Research Center for Creative Altruism he developed a blueprint for social reconstruction. In the early 1960s, his work was again recognized, and he became president of the American Sociological Association.