ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that Sumner's Folkways is a missing link, so to speak, because although it is a compendious descriptive volume, it also introduces important, albeit pre-mature, concepts such as mores, folkways, ethos, ethnocentrism, and the like, making it just about a full-fledged sociological work. In Folkways, Sumner either introduced or anticipated some of the big concepts that characterize modern sociology. Thus, he coined the term "folkways", and restyled the ancient Greek notion of mores into an almost scalpel-sharp concept. The chapter notes Sumner's theory of social and cultural change, especially his dual concepts of crescive and enacted change, and their rootedness in the mores and folkways. E. Digby Baltzell shows that Sumner often opposed parts of the business community, all forms of imperialism, restrictions on immigration, and racism. Any serious attempt to gauge his intellectual importance as a sociologist must also take into account his political and ideological influence.
