Life and the Student - Roadside Notes on Human Nature, Society, and Letters

Life and the Student (1927), with a new introduction by Jonathan B. Imber, is a compilation of reflections, commentaries, and letters from other scholars that Charles Horton Cooley, accumulated throughout his life. The book includes personal passages on various topics within the realms of reading and writing, thinking, art, science, sociology, academia, religion, and human nature.There is no formal structure to the book, except the literary sense that organizes these thoughts and observations about life. It is impossible to categorize these widely ranging commentaries. They include discussions of the automobile, the impressionable nature of young people, the claim that the question of racial superiority is still unresolved, his belief that eugenists are inconsistent in their views, and more.Cooley's work sought to emphasize the connection between society and the individual. He believed that the two could only be understood in relationship to each other. While researching the effects of social responses and social participation, he created the concept of the "looking-glass self," which is the theory that a person's sense of self grows out of interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. Cooley also showed that social life and the relationship between groups and communities stems from mental phenomena.Table of ContentINTRODUCTION: THE VOCATION OF CHARLES HORTON COOLEY by Jonathan B. Imber b>PART ONE b> span style=line-height:1.6em>OUR TIME span> Automobiles ? Strategy of the Youth Movement ? Confusion and Continuity ? Shaky Bridges ? Our Complex Life ? Radicalism and Reaction ? The Conservatism of Intelligence ? Education and Religion ? Nationality ? American Patriotism ? Traits of Democracy ? Immigrants ? Americanization ? Race ? Anti-Semitism ? Eugenists ? Team-Work ? Social Mechanics ? Classes and Culture ? The Upper Class ? Class Magazines ? The Handworking Classes ? Class-Conflict ?Rural Physiognomy ? Progress? b>PART TWO b> READING AND WRITING Books and Persons ? Character ? The Book and the Sentence ? Form ? Freedom in Books ? Diary Books ? Literary Selves ? Egotism ? Selves and Bodies ? Struggle ? Tranquillity ? Jealousy ? Criticism ? Self-Criticism ? Residual Satisfactions ? Magazines ? Goethe ? Dante ? Pascal ? Bacon ? Montesquieu and de Tocqueville ? La Bruyere ? Samuel Butler ? Quiet in Books ? Thoreau ? Thomas a Kempis b>PART THREE b> THINKING Originality ? System and Spontaneity ? How to Grow Ideas ? Dried Truth ? Motives ? Milieu ? Controversy. ? The Subservience of Contradiction ? Notes from Practice ? Children's Philosophy b>PART FOUR b> ART, SCIENCE AND SOCIOLOGY Building ? The Glamour of Art ? The Artist's Public ? Heritage ? Art and Conduct ? An Art of Society? ? Art and Science ? The Fallibility of Scientific Groups ? Skirmishes on the Border ? Pseudo-Science ? Perception ? Diagrams and Statistics ? Traits of Sociology ? Two Ways of Organizing Life ? The Organization of Freedom ? Heredity or Environment. b>PART FIVE b> ACADEMIC A Soft Job ? An Art? ? The Day's Work ? The Eloquent Man ? Formalism ? Heritage and Spontaneity ? The Passing Current ? The Chair ? American Universities ? The Campus ? Scholars and Administrators ? Genius on the Faculty ? Academic Freedom ? The Academic Outlook ? Outing b>PART SIX b> HUMAN NATURE Is Human Nature Selfish ? Self-Expression ? The Looking-Glass Self ? Possessions ? The Material I ? On a Remark of Dr. Holmes ? On Certain Sentiments ? The Gregarious Instinct ? Plans Anticipation ? The End of the World ? The Transitive Attitude ? Posthumous Fame ? Might and Right ? Prudence ? Worry ? Distraction ? Mental Management ? Compensation b>PART SEVEN b> LARGER LIFE Faith ? The Mind of the Soldier ? The Lot of the Individual ? As to the Shortness of Life ? Evolution ? Expansion ? Solidarity ? Perplexity ? The Incredibility of Institutions ? Past, Present and Future ? Ideas about God ? God and Oneself ? Seeking God ? Another Life? ? Varieties of Idealism ? Can Christianity Survive? ? The Golden Rule ? Group Sins ? Social Religion ? Christianity and Class ? The Church ? Salvation INDEXBiographical NoteCharles Horton Cooley (1864u1929) was an American sociologist who taught economics and sociology at the University of Michigan, USA. Cooley was a founding member and the eighth president of the American Sociological Association.