ABSTRACT
American sociology did undergo a major transformation and transvaluation during the 1920s. The separation of social work from sociology cut off many of sociology’s direct ties to social reformism. The loss of these supports for Christian sociology left the discipline free to secularize its perspective on reality. Sociology could, of course, be used as an aid for social amelioration, which Giddings believed was one of sociology’s major goals. Sociology can be characterized as the scientific study of human society, constantly seeking more rigorous scientific methods and more effective applications to the end that society may attain a better selection, preservation, and development of a superior mankind. If sociology were to become a discipline to be employed by government or business it would first have to repudiate its religious redemptionism. The statistical methodology employed in Recent Social Trends would aid sociology not only to document the past and present but to predict the future as well.
