ABSTRACT
Characterization of sociological theory by application of the scheme to particular, relevant statements of theorists from a given period of time does presuppose a context or contexts which must be delineated and elaborated if the endeavor is to be meaningful. Significantly, the very justification which early sociologists offered for their discipline required its conscious orientation generally to the conditions of modern society and particularly to those in the context of their own society. Early sociologists were aware that American society as the context of social problems was undergoing basic, rapid change after the Civil War. Patently, the social phenomena represented by social problems did direct early sociologists’ attention to the changing character of the larger American society. A more directly and ultimately religious basis of humanitarianism, which occasioned more or less directly religiously inspired social reform activities in the last several decades of the nineteenth century, had its precedents in the era before the Civil War.
