Overview

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.

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9781412854788

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Reviews

In Life and the Student Professor Cooley has given his readers the accumulated wisdom of years devoted to the study of society and human nature. His new book is written with clarity and literary skill. . . . The rationale of the book lies in a clear understanding of social forces and their causes and in the ability to incorporate into the thought of the book present-day contributions to the knowledge of human nature from the fields of biology and psychology. . . . Professor Cooley brings to all his activities a refinement that springs from inherent simplicity and from a dislike of pose, rancor, and pretense. The result is a philosophy of reasonableness, good will, and tolerance. --H. L. Lurie, Social Service Review Professor Cooley's latest book [is] a real treasure. . . . There is no formal structure to the book except the literary sense which organizes these thoughts and observations on life, about certain central topics such as human nature, thinking, the academic life, art and science, reading and writing, and the larger life. . . . To have known Professor Cooley personally is a rare privilege; but have missed that good fortune the next best thing is to see him revealed as he stands out in this book, humane, wise, simple, reverent, intuitive, magnanimous, gently humorous, and with a profound love of people--all sorts of people. No wonder sociologists consider him the most philosophic mind in all their group. --Arthur J. Todd, The American Journal of Sociology

-In Life and the Student Professor Cooley has given his readers the accumulated wisdom of years devoted to the study of society and human nature. His new book is written with clarity and literary skill. . . . The rationale of the book lies in a clear understanding of social forces and their causes and in the ability to incorporate into the thought of the book present-day contributions to the knowledge of human nature from the fields of biology and psychology. . . . Professor Cooley brings to all his activities a refinement that springs from inherent simplicity and from a dislike of pose, rancor, and pretense. The result is a philosophy of reasonableness, good will, and tolerance.- --H. L. Lurie, Social Service Review -Professor Cooley's latest book [is] a real treasure. . . . There is no formal structure to the book except the literary sense which organizes these thoughts and observations on life, about certain central topics such as human nature, thinking, the academic life, art and science, reading and writing, and the larger life. . . . To have known Professor Cooley personally is a rare privilege; but have missed that good fortune the next best thing is to see him revealed as he stands out in this book, humane, wise, simple, reverent, intuitive, magnanimous, gently humorous, and with a profound love of people--all sorts of people. No wonder sociologists consider him the most philosophic mind in all their group.- --Arthur J. Todd, The American Journal of Sociology In Life and the Student Professor Cooley has given his readers the accumulated wisdom of years devoted to the study of society and human nature. His new book is written with clarity and literary skill. . . . The rationale of the book lies in a clear understanding of social forces and their causes and in the ability to incorporate into the thought of the book present-day contributions to the knowledge of human nature from the fields of biology and psychology. . . . Professor Cooley brings to all his activities a refinement that springs from inherent simplicity and from a dislike of pose, rancor, and pretense. The result is a philosophy of reasonableness, good will, and tolerance. --H. L. Lurie, Social Service Review Professor Cooley's latest book [is] a real treasure. . . . There is no formal structure to the book except the literary sense which organizes these thoughts and observations on life, about certain central topics such as human nature, thinking, the academic life, art and science, reading and writing, and the larger life. . . . To have known Professor Cooley personally is a rare privilege; but have missed that good fortune the next best thing is to see him revealed as he stands out in this book, humane, wise, simple, reverent, intuitive, magnanimous, gently humorous, and with a profound love of people--all sorts of people. No wonder sociologists consider him the most philosophic mind in all their group. --Arthur J. Todd, The American Journal of Sociology In Life and the Student Professor Cooley has given his readers the accumulated wisdom of years devoted to the study of society and human nature. His new book is written with clarity and literary skill. . . . The rationale of the book lies in a clear understanding of social forces and their causes and in the ability to incorporate into the thought of the book present-day contributions to the knowledge of human nature from the fields of biology and psychology. . . . Professor Cooley brings to all his activities a refinement that springs from inherent simplicity and from a dislike of pose, rancor, and pretense. The result is a philosophy of reasonableness, good will, and tolerance. --H. L. Lurie, Social Service Review Professor Cooley's latest book [is] a real treasure. . . . There is no formal structure to the book except the literary sense which organizes these thoughts and observations on life, about certain central topics such as human nature, thinking, the academic life, art and science, reading and writing, and the larger life. . . . To have known Professor Cooley personally is a rare privilege; but have missed that good fortune the next best thing is to see him revealed as he stands out in this book, humane, wise, simple, reverent, intuitive, magnanimous, gently humorous, and with a profound love of people--all sorts of people. No wonder sociologists consider him the most philosophic mind in all their group. --Arthur J. Todd, The American Journal of Sociology

Author Information

Charles 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.

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