William Graham Sumner is remembered primarily as an opponent of government intervention in social and economic issues. Focusing on Folkways (1906), this book examines Sumner's fundamental work as a comparative ethnographer with an appreciation for the rules and rituals that regulate everyday behavior.

In Folkways, Sumner developed classifications and an array of sociological concepts that continue to influence the discipline today. This new book presents key excerpts from Folkways as well as three of Sumner's other classic essays. It also includes five original essays by contemporary authorities that explain and explore Sumner's importance and influence. By linking Sumner's work to contemporary research about social control, the sociology of law, and sociological theory, these new essays confirm his status as a foundational thinker in the field.

Sumner offers an elegant conceptual schema with which to analyze the moral codes of in- and out-groups. His extensive use of comparative anthropological data demonstrates a qualitative methodology that can easily be applied to the analysis of contemporary American society. This volume includes contributions by Jonathan B. Imber, Howard G. Schneiderman, and A. Javier Trevino.

1 Folkways as a Sociological Classic -Philip Manning2 William Graham Sumner's Proto-Sociology of Law -A. Javier Trevino3 William Graham Sumner's Proto-Symbolic Interactionism -Philip Manning4 Certain Folkways and Uncertain Mores -Jonathan B. Imber5 Folkways and the Rise of Modern Sociology -Howard G. Schneiderman6 Folkways
Chapter I, Fundamental Notions of the Folkways and of the Mores (1907) -William Graham Sumner
Chapter II, Characteristics of the Mores (1907) -William Graham Sumner
Chapter XV, The Mores Can Make Anything Right . . . (1907) -William Graham Sumner7 Religion and the Mores American Journal of Sociology (1910) -William Graham Sumner8 The Mores of the Present and the Future Yale Review (1909) -William Graham Sumner9 The Family and Social Change American Journal of Sociology (1909) -William Graham SumnerContributorsIndex