A (Brief) History of British Sociology Prior to 1960

In this chapter British sociology prior to 1960, at which point the discipline sees a great expansion following the Robbins Report, is broken into three periods. Firstly, before 1900 we see a form of ‘implicit’ sociology which, found most notably in political economy and statistics, often lacked any significant theoretical grounding (beyond some basic positivism) and was done in an amateur ‘gentlemanly’ way. These efforts were largely dedicated to the cause of ‘reform’. Secondly, from 1900–1920 we get the battle of institutionalisation, in which different visions of the disciplines compete, most significantly around the opportunity to be appointed to the first Professorship of Sociology in the country at the LSE. L.T. Hobhouse and his version of unempirical and value-free evolutionary sociology wins this contest. From here the third period, 1920–1960, sees a floating discipline with different activities, but dominated by the LSE and their vision of a scientific discipline. This last period has attracted the least interest of the field. Being the years in which Cole was active, it will be explored in this book.