Harriet Martineau
By: Olivia Fogelsonger
Background
10 Facts
-Between 1834 and 1836, she studied and visited the United States, and reported her findings in Society In America in 1837, and The Retrospect of Western Travel in 1838.
-In 1838, she also wrote a book called How to Observe Morals and Manors, which elaborated on the principles and methods of empirical social research.
-Society In America is her most widely known work to sociology in the United States.
-Harriet examined social classes, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, the status of women, criminology, and the interactions between individuals and institutions before Marx, Engels or Weber.
-In her work; Eastern Life Past and Present, she openly embraced atheism after a visit to the Mid- East in 1848.
-Because of this embrace of Atheism, she lost the support of many of her family members, especially her brother James, whom she had been very close to throughout her childhood.
-Throughout her lifetime, Harriet wrote over 1500 columns as a pioneer in what is now called sociology.
- She was forgotten in sociology, literature, history and journalism because of the male academic system.
-When Harriet died of illness in 1876, she had already written her own obituary.