George Elliott Howard

George Elliot Howard ( born October 1, 1849 in Saratoga, New York, † June 9, 1928 in Lincoln, Nebraska) was an American historian and sociologist as well as the seventh president of the American Sociological Association.

Howard put the bachelor's exam in 1867 from the University of Nebraska and then spent two years studying history and Roman Law in Munich and Paris. After his return he was in 1879 at the University of Nebraska professor of history. In 1891 he moved to Stanford University where he also taught as a professor of history. In 1901 there were his activities in Stanford to protest the resignation of his colleague Edward Alsworth Ross. Ross had been fired because he had turned against the exploitation of Chinese workers in the railway construction. After Howard was working at the University of Chicago, where he wrote his three-volume magnum opus History of Matrimonial Institutions.

In his academic work of Howard linked history and social sciences together. He turned to the method of historical sociology, on issues of family sociology, as the pioneer he is.

Writings (selection )

• Local Constitutional History of the United States, 1889
• The Evolution of the University, 1890
• The King's Peace and the Local Peace Magistracy, 1891
• History of Matrimonial Institutions, three volumes, 1904
• Preliminaries of the Revolution, 1905
• Social Control and Function of the Family, 1906
• General Sociology, 1907
• The Family and Marriage, 1914.