Lester Frank Ward | Academic Influence

Lester Frank Ward's AcademicInfluence.com Rankings

Lester Frank Ward

Sociology

#58

Historical Rank

sociology Degrees

Lester Frank Ward

Biology

#2097

Historical Rank

Paleontology

#171

Historical Rank

biology Degrees

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Sociology
Biology

Lester Frank Ward's Degrees

Doctorate Law Brown University

Why Is Lester Frank Ward Influential?

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According to Wikipedia, Lester Frank Ward was an American botanist, paleontologist, and sociologist. He served as the first president of the American Sociological Association. In service of democratic development, polymath Lester Ward was the original American leader promoting the introduction of sociology courses into American higher education. His Enlightenment belief that institution-building could be scientifically informed was attractive to democratic intellectuals during the Progressive Era. To avoid anachronism and misinterpretation, it is crucial to understand that what "scientific" means, including scientists' own science concept, has long been contested. Ward's version of social science was based in organicist Enlightenment theories of comparative knowledge for democratic development, as distinguished from the mechanist version of science associated with Spencer's version of Sociology, and which later came to dominate the Anglo-American sciences and, along with micro symbolic interactionism and ethnography, sociology in the Cold War. Ward's significance is in deploying his scientific literacy, including his grasp of geological and biological sciences, to found American Sociology in an historical-materialist paradigm that avoided Cartesian dualism and efficiently distinguished democratic-developmentalist social institutions. Ward's influence in certain circles was also affected by his Enlightenment views regarding organized priesthoods, which he believed had been responsible for more evil than good throughout human history.

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Lester Frank Ward's Published Works

Number of citations in a given year to any of this author's works

Total number of citations to an author for the works they published in a given year. This highlights publication of the most important work(s) by the author

Published Works

Social Forces (1911) (182)
Pure Sociology; A Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society (1904) (76)
Social Psychology: An Outline and Source Book (1908) (45)
Erratum: Applied Sociology: A Treatise on the Conscious Improvement of Society by Society. (1907) (40)
The Psychic Factors of Civilization (32)
Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics (1913) (30)
MIND AS A SOCIAL FACTOR (1884) (26)
Geology of the Little Colorado Valley (1901) (24)
Types of the Laramie Flora (22)
Social and Biological Struggles (1907) (21)
The Problem of Age, Growth, and Death. A Study of Cytomorphosis, based on Lectures at the Lowell Institute, March, 1907. By Charles S. Minot (1908) (20)
Herbert Spencer's sociology (18)
Glimpses of the Cosmos (17)
The Establishment of Sociology (1907) (16)
Status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States, Second paper: Part I.-Text, Part II.-Plates (15)
Social Classes in the Light of Modern Sociological Theory (1908) (14)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. VI. The Data of Sociology (1896) (13)
Contemporary Sociology. II (1902) (13)
The Place of Sociology Among the Sciences (1895) (11)
Evolution of Social Structures (1905) (11)
The dynamics of mind. (10)
Guide to the Flora of Washington and Vicinity (10)
Social Differentiation and Social Integration (1903) (9)
The Jurassic Flora (1904) (9)
Relation of Sociology to Anthropology (1895) (9)
Socialization of achievement. (9)
Evidence of the fossil plants as to the age of the Potomac Formation (1888) (9)
Evolution in the Vegetable Kingdom (1885) (8)
Classification of the sciences. (8)
The Wealden Flora (1896) (8)
The Psychologic Basis of Social Economics (1893) (7)
The science of sociology. (7)
Elaboration of the fossil cycads in the Yale Museum (1900) (6)
Fossil cycadean trunks of North America, with a revision of the genus Cycadeoidea Buckland (6)
Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Lamarckism. Annual address of the president of the biological society of Washington (6)
WHAT ARE STIPULES (1897) (6)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. III Sociology and Biology (1895) (6)
The paleontologic history of the genus Platanus (5)
Descriptions of the species of Cycadeoidea, or fossil cycadean trunks, thus far determined from the Lower Cretaceous rim of the Black Hills (5)
The Cretaceous Rim of the Black Hills (1894) (5)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. IX. The Purpose of Sociology (1896) (5)
Outlines of Sociology (1898) (5)
The Political Ethics of Herbert Spencer (1894) (4)
The Substance of the Sociology of Lester F. Ward (4)
THE GINKGO-TREE. (1885) (4)
Ward's Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie Group (1889) (4)
The Sociology of Political Parties (1908) (4)
THE NEW BOTANY. (1893) (3)
FEELING AND FUNCTION AS FACTORS IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. (1880) (3)
TRUTH AND ERROR. (1899) (3)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. V. Sociology and Psychology (1896) (3)
HERBERT SPENCER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. (1904) (3)
THE UTILITARIAN CHARACTER OF DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. (1892) (3)
PALEOZOIC SEED PLANTS. (1904) (3)
SAPORTA AND WILLIAMSON AND THEIR WORK IN PALEOBOTANY. (1895) (3)
Scientific basis of positive political economy (2)
Social Laws. An Outline of Sociology (1900) (2)
The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (1904) (2)
The Nomenclature Question (2)
Static and Dynamic Sociology (1895) (2)
Ethical Aspects of Social Science (1896) (2)
THE MESOZOIC FLORA OF PORTUGAL COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE UNITED STATES. (1895) (2)
The Organic Compounds in Their Relations to Life (1882) (2)
A Monistic Theory of Mind. (2)
Recent Discoveries of Cycadean Trunks in the Potomac Formation of Maryland (1894) (2)
The dynamic agent. (2)
Psychology of invention. (2)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. VIII. The Mechanics of Society (1896) (2)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. XI. Individual Telesis (1897) (2)
Why is water considered ghost-proof? (1885) (2)
Synopsis of the flora of the Laramie group, by Lester F. Ward. [Extract from the Sixth annual report of the director of the U.S. Geologica survey] 1884-85. (2)
PROFESSOR FONTAINE AND DR. NEWBERRY ON THE AGE OF THE POTOMAC FORMATION. (1897) (2)
Contemporary Sociology. III (1902) (2)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. XII. Collective Telesis (1897) (2)
Frost Freaks of the Dittany (1893) (2)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. IV. Sociology and Anthropology (1896) (1)
The phylogenetic forces. (1)
List of plants added to the flora of Washington from April 1, 1882, to April 1, 1884 (1)
On the Genealogy of Plants (1878) (1)
The Relations of the Social Sciences: A Symposium (1907) (1)
A New Species of Eucalyptus from the Dakota Group of Southwestern Kansas (1897) (1)
Origin of the Plane-Trees (1890) (1)
AN EXAMPLE IN NOMENCLATURE. (1905) (1)
Descriptions of the species of Cycadeoidea, or fossil cycadean trunks, thus far discovered in the iron ore belt, Potomac Formation, of Maryland (1)
The philosophy of desire. (1)
An Outline of the Theory of Organic Evolution, with a Description of some of the Phenomena which it Explains. By Maynard M. Metcalf (1905) (1)
The Distribution of Wealth. By JOHN R. COMMONS. Pp. 258. New York and London: Macmillan & Co. I893 (1894) (1)
Two Books on Social Mechanics (1913) (1)
The Natural Storage of Energy. (1)
Caulinites and Zamiostrobus. (1)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. X. Social Genesis (1897) (1)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. VII. The Social Forces (1896) (1)
Principles of Sociology (1896) (1)
Haeckel's Genesis of man, or, History of the development of the human race. Being a review of his "Anthropogenie", and embracing a summary exposition of his views and of those of the advanced German school of science. (1)
The Essential Nature of Religion (1898) (1)
A CONVENIENT SYSTEM OF RIVER NOMENCLATURE. (1885) (1)
Sociology and the State (1910) (1)
The Postage Question (1882) (1)
The claims of political science. (1884) (1)
IRRIGATION IN THE UPPER MISSOURI AND YELLOWSTONE VALLEYS. (1884) (1)
The conative faculty. (1)
Status of the Mesozoic floras of the United States. by Lester F. Ward ; with the collaboration of William M. Fontaine, Arthur Bibbins, and G.R Wieland. (1)
The transforming agency. (0)
Where did Life begin? A Brief Inquiry as to the Probable Place of Beginning and the Natural Courses of Migration therefrom of the Flora and Fauna of the Earth. A Monograph. By Gilbert Hilton Scribner (1904) (0)
The Nature of Pleasure (1897) (0)
SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PARADOXES. (1888) (0)
The data of sociology (0)
A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITS CHARACTER AND PURPOSE. (1891) (0)
The social will. (0)
Dynamic principles (continued). (0)
The economy of nature and the economy of mind. (0)
Brief survey of the positive philosophy of Auguste Comte. (0)
The directive agent. (0)
Utilitarian Economics (1898) (0)
A National University, Its Character and Purpose (1891) (0)
Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology (1907) (0)
Adaptation. Reciprocal relations of man and the universe. (0)
THE SOCIOLOGICAL POSITION OF PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE (1889) (0)
Principle of deception. (0)
Secondary aggregation.—(Continued). (0)
Contributions to Social Philosophy. II. Sociology and Cosmology (1895) (0)
The inventive faculty. (0)
The dual nature of mind. (0)
Decumaria barbara (1882) (0)
The "King-Devil" (1889) (0)
Action. Direct means to progress, or second proximate end of conation. (0)
Ward, Lester F. undated fragment [to S. Watson] (0)
Fossil Plants for Students of Botany and Geology . By A. C. Seward, M.A F.G.S. With Illustrations. Vol. I. Cambridge. 1898. Pp. xviii+452. Cambridge Natural Science MIanuals. Biological Series. (1898) (0)
Proterogyn in Sparganium eurycarpum (1882) (0)
Origin and function of pleasure and pain. (0)
Famous fossil cycad (1904) (0)
The subject-matter of sociology. (0)
SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL PARADOXES (1889) (0)
Premature appearance of the periodical cicada. (1885) (0)
The genesis of mind (continued). (0)
Knowledge. Immediate data of ideas, or fourth proximate end of conation. (0)
Classification of the social forces. (0)
Frost Plants. (1894) (0)
Walter Deane correspondence. (0)
Walter Deane correspondence. (0)
Briefer Communication (1899) (0)
The Exemption of Women From Labor. (1894) (0)
Feeling, function, and action. (0)
The Pteridospermaphyta (1904) (0)
Ward, Lester F. Sept. 24, 1885 [to S. Watson] (1885) (0)
On the determination of fossil dicotyledonous leaves (1886) (0)
Notes on the Flora of Eastern Virginia (1886) (0)
Volume Information (1899) (0)
Ward, Lester F. June 21, 1888 [to S. Watson] (1888) (0)
Opinion. Direct means to progressive action, or third proximate end of conation. (0)
Ludwig Gumplowicz (1909) (0)
Incomplete Adaptation as Illustrated by the History of Sex in Plants (1881) (0)
The Changing Chinese, Oriental and Western Cultutres in China (1912) (0)
On the Natural Succession of the Dicotyledons (1878) (0)
XLIV.—On Mesozoic Dicotyledons (1884) (0)
Progress. Primary means to happiness, or first proximate end of conation. (0)
Feeling and Function as Factors in Human Development (1880) (0)
Proceedings of Scientific Societies (1883) (0)
Social achievement through the conquest of nature. (0)
THE WORD 'ECOLOGY.'. (1902) (0)
A Glance at the History of Our Knowledge of Fossil Plants (1885) (0)
The Science and Art of Government (1891) (0)
Homeric Society. A Sociological Study of the Iliad and Odyssey. By Albert Galloway Keller, Ph.D (1902) (0)
AGE OF THE ISLAND SERIES. (1896) (0)
Quercus leana, Nutt (1880) (0)
The social intellect. (0)
Caulinites and Zamiostrobus (1884) (0)
On Mesozoic dicotyledons (1884) (0)
THE PTERIDOSPERMAPHYTA. (1904) (0)
Record Unit 7321 Lester Frank Ward Papers, 1882-1913, with related materials to circa 1965 (0)
Some Social and Economic Paradoxes (1888) (0)
Catalogue of a collection of Japanese woods presented to the United States National Museum by the University of Tokio, Japan (0)
William Bower Taylor (1895) (0)
Proceedings of Scientific Societies (1892) (0)
Nature of the soul. (0)
SIA RU007321, Ward, Lester Frank 1841-1913, Lester Frank Ward Papers, 1882-1913, with related materials to circa 1965 (0)
The Claims of Political Science (1884) (0)
Ward, Lester F. Dec. 15, 1888 [to S. Watson] (1887) (0)
Principles and Methods of Geologic Correlation by Means of Fossil Plants (1891) (0)
Book Review:The Theory of Social Forces. Simon N. Patton (1896) (0)
Age of the Island Series (1896) (0)
The sociogenetic forces. (0)
The ontogenetic forces. (0)
The course of biologic evolution [Presidential address] (0)
The psychologic process. (0)
Flora Columbiana, or, Catalogue of plants growing without cultivation, collected by members of the Potomac-Side Naturalists' Club, in the District of Columbia and its immediate vicinity. (0)
Ward, Lester F. July 5, 1888 [to S. Watson] (1888) (0)
Evolution in the Vegetable Kingdom (Continued) (1885) (0)
Ward, Lester F. Jan. 2, 1889 [to S. Watson] (1889) (0)
Local field note-book no. 2 of Lester F. Ward, October 16, 1892 to May 7, 1893 (0)
The will of Schopenhauer. (0)
Ward, Lester F. Feb. 5, 1889 [to S. Watson] (1889) (0)
Education. Direct means to knowledge; fifth and last proximate end, and initial means to the ultimate end of conation. (0)
Local field note-book no. 2 of Lester F. Ward, October 16, 1892 to May 7, 1893 [transcript] (0)
Refutation of pessimism. (0)
Two kinds of philosophy. (0)
The omitted factor. (0)
Utility. Happiness the ultimate end of conation. (0)
Brief survey of the synthetic philosophy of Herbert Spencer. (0)
Darwin as a botanist (0)
The genesis of mind. (0)
Social statics (continued). (0)
Contemporary Sociology (1902) (0)
The Fossil Flora of the Globe (1884) (0)
A national university. (1885) (0)

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