Encounters With Harriet Martineau

A champion of women's rights, racial equality, scientific progress, economic fairness and cooperatives, Harriet Martineau’s popular and influential writing on political and economic issues led to fame across Europe and America in the 1830s. The first female journalist and a founder of sociology she she was a pioneer amongst pioneers. Martineau influenced Charles Darwin, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Florence Nightingale, Josephine Butler and many others. Her encounters with figures such as these reverberate even today. She was truly a woman ahead of her time.

This book explores the innovative, sociological approach adopted by Harriet Martineau in her efforts to develop a ‘scientific’ approach to understanding social and societal change. With attention to her focus on the key social structures and societal issues of her day – the economy, education, the condition of women and the evils of slavery – the authors highlight her creation and application of what we now recognise as sociological methodology, fieldwork and analysis. Through an examination in each chapter of the writings that best illustrate Martineau’s sociological perspective, Reintroducing Harriet Martineau discusses her enduring contribution to sociology. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology with interests in the history of the discipline and questions of methodology.

The unusual and candid autobiography of writer Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), first published in 1877.