Solution Manual for Sociology A Brief Introduction 11th

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CHAPTER
SOCIAL INTERACTION,
5 GROUPS, AND SOCIAL
STRUCTURE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN GLOBAL

REALITY PERSPECTIVE
Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic
ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE Solidarity
Statuses Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Social Roles Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution
Approach
Groups
Social Networks
Social Institutions

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS
Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

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SOCIAL POLICY AND Sociology in the Global Community:
ORGANIZATIONS: THE STATE OF McDonald’s and the Worldwide
THE UNIONS WORLDWIDE Bureaucratization of Society
Sociology in the Global Community: Disney
World: A Postmodern Theme Park
Boxes
Research Today: Disability as a Master
Status
Taking Sociology to Work: Sarah Levy,
Owner, S. Levy Foods
Research Today: Social Networks and
Obesity
LEARNING OBJECTIVES WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 5

1. Explain the relationship between social • Opening excerpt from “Pathology of

reality and social interaction.
2. List and summarize the five elements of
social structure.
3. Explain how ascribed status and master
status can constrain achieved status.
4. Give examples of role conflict, role
strain, and role exit.
5. Differentiate among the five different
types of groups.
6. Analyze the functionalist, interactionist,
and conflict views of social institutions.
7. Describe the pitfalls and benefits of
social networks and virtual worlds.
8. Describe Durkheim’s, Tönnies’s, and
Lenski’s approaches to classifying forms
of social structure.
9. List and describe the five basic
characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy
according to Weber.
Imprisonment” by Philip Zimbardo
• Taking Sociology to Work box, “Sarah
Levy, Owner, S. Levy Foods”
• Discussion of research on the importance
of group solidarity following the shootings
at Virginia Tech in 2007
• Explanation of the difference between
social networks and social media
• Discussion of the perceived need to
reform the process of bureaucratization in
China
• Thinking Critically exercise
• Sociology in the Global Community box,
“Disney World: A Postmodern Theme
Park,” with key term treatment of Jean
Baudrillard’s concept of
hyperconsumerism
• Social Policy section, “The State of the
Unions Worldwide,” with figure, “Labor
Union Membership Worldwide”

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another. Social structure refers to
the way a society is organized into predictable relationships. Both social interaction and social structure
are central to understanding how different aspects of behavior are related to one another. Our response
to someone’s behavior is based on the meaning we attach to his/her actions. Reality is shaped by our
perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power
within a society.

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 Sociologists use the term status to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a
large group or society. Sociologically, status does not refer to prestige. Any position, whether deemed
good or bad, positive or negative, is a status. A person can hold a number of statuses at the same time.
An ascribed status is assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or
characteristics, generally at birth. An achieved status is attained by a person largely through his or her
own efforts. A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general
position within society.

A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. Role
conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the
same person. Role strain is a term used to describe the difficulty that arises when the same social
position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. The process of disengagement from a role that
is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity is referred to as role exit.

A group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and
consciously interact. Groups play an important part in a society’s structure. Much of our social
interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions. Primary groups
are small groups characterized by intimate, face-to-face interaction and socialization; secondary
groups are more formal, impersonal groups in which there is little social intimacy or mutual
understanding. An in-group can be defined as any group or category to which people feel they belong,
whereas an out-group is any group or category to which people do not think they belong. Sociologists
call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior a
reference group. Group growth can result in coalitions—temporary or permanent alliances geared
toward a common goal.

Members of different groups make connections through a series of social relationships known as a
social network. With advances in technology, we can now maintain social networks electronically; we
don’t need face-to-face contact.

Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.
Functionalists view social institutions as necessary for the survival of society in meeting the basic needs
of its members. Conflict theorists suggest that social institutions maintain the privileges of the most
powerful individuals and groups within a society. Interactionists emphasize that our social behavior is
conditioned by the roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions
within which we function.

As contemporary societies have become more complex, our lives have become dominated by formal
organizations—groups designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency. Formal
organizations fulfill an enormous variety of personal and societal needs, shaping the lives of every one
of us. Ascribed statuses such as gender, race, and ethnicity can influence how we see ourselves within
formal organizations.

A bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to
achieve efficiency. Max Weber was the first theorist to concentrate on bureaucracy, using the concept
of ideal type to construct and model specific cases. Weber argued that ideal bureaucracies always have
five basic characteristics: division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules and regulations,
impersonality, and employment based on technical qualifications. An organization’s bureaucracy can
also grow over time; sociologists call this process bureaucratization. The conflict theorist Robert
Michels argued that bureaucratization eventually reaches a stage in which an oligarchy develops.

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 Sociologists also study organizational and bureaucratic culture. The classical theory of formal
organizations (scientific management approach) posits that workers are motivated almost entirely by
economic rewards. The more recent human relations approach emphasizes the role of people,
communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

Émile Durkheim developed the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity to describe
the kind of consciousness that develops in societies where there is a simple or complex division of
labor, respectively. Ferdinand Tönnies used the term Gemeinschaft to refer to a small, close-knit
community, typical of rural life, where people have similar backgrounds and life experiences.
Conversely, the Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern urban life. Here, most people are
strangers who feel little in common with one another.

In contrast to Tönnies’s perspective, Gerhard Lenski viewed societies as undergoing change according
to a dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution. His view suggests that a society’s level of
technology is critical to the way it is organized. The hunting-and-gathering society, the horticultural
society, and the agrarian society are three types of preindustrial societies. An industrial society
depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services. A postindustrial society’s economic
system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information. A postmodern society is a
technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods and media images. At
the macro-level of analysis, we see society shifting to more advanced forms of technology. The social
structure becomes complex and new social institutions emerge to assume some functions previously
performed by family. On the micro-level of analysis, these changes affect the nature of social
interactions between people. People come to rely more on social networks, rather than solely on
kinship ties.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Introduction
• Excerpt from “Pathology of Imprisonment” by Philip Zimbardo

I. Social Interaction and Reality

• Social interaction refers to the way people respond to one another.
• Social structure refers to the way in which a society is organized into predictable
relationships. The linkage of social interaction and social structure is central to
sociological study. They are closely related to socialization.
• Social reality is literally constructed from our social interactions.
• The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within society.
Example: William I. Thomas’s “definition of the situation”

II. Elements of Social Structure

A. Statuses
• Status refers to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group
or society. A number of statuses can be held at the same time. Examples: U.S.
president, son or daughter, dental technician, neighbor

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 1. Ascribed and Achieved Status
• Ascribed status is generally assigned at birth without regard to a person’s unique
talents or characteristics. Ascribed statuses are assigned; they are not chosen.
Therefore, they are said to be involuntary. Examples: race, gender, age (note,
however, that sociologists have long challenged the notion of “race” as a biological
category; furthermore, with technological advancements, sex is no longer necessarily
ascribed)
• Achieved status comes to us largely through our own efforts. Examples: lawyer,
pianist, convict, social worker
2. Master Status
• A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general
position within society. Example: Arthur Ashe, who died of AIDS

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 B. Social Roles
1. What Are Social Roles?
• A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or
status. Roles are a significant component of social structure. Example: Police are
expected to protect us and apprehend criminals.
2. Role Conflict
• Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social
positions held by the same person. Example: newly-promoted worker who carries on
a relationship with his or her former workgroup
• It may also occur among individuals moving into occupations that are not common
among people with their ascribed status. Examples: female police officers and male
preschool teachers
3. Role Strain
• Role strain refers to a situation in which the same social position imposes conflicting
demands and expectations. Example: alternative forms of justice among Navajo
police officers
4. Role Exit
• Role exit is the process of disengaging from a role that is central to one’s self-
identity.
• Ebaugh developed a four-stage model: (1) doubt, (2) search for alternatives, (3)
action stage or departure, and (4) creation of a new identity. Examples: graduating
from high school or college; retirement; divorce

C. Groups
• A group consists of any number of people with similar norms, values, and
expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis. Examples: sports
team, college sorority, hospital business office, symphony orchestra
• Groups play a vital role in social structure.
1. Primary and Secondary Groups
• A primary group is a small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association
and cooperation. Primary groups play a pivotal role both in the socialization process
and in the development of roles and statuses.
• A secondary group is a formal, impersonal group in which there is little social
intimacy or mutual understanding.
• The distinction between primary and secondary groups is not always clear-cut.
2. In-Groups and Out-Groups
• A in-group is any group or category to which people feel they belong. Members
typically feel distinct and superior; and see themselves at better than those of an out-
group. Examples: a teenage clique; an entire society
• An out-group is a group or category to which people feel they do not belong.
3. Reference Groups
• A reference group is any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating
themselves and their own behavior. Example: A high school student who aspires to
join a social circle of hip-hop music devotees will pattern his or her behavior after
that group.
4. Coalitions
• A coalition is a temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.
Example: a community-based organization that has banded together to work for
street improvements

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 D. Social Networks
• A social network is a series of social relationships that links a person directly to
others, and through them indirectly to still more people. Examples: networking for
employment, exchanging news and gossip
• Influence of the Internet on social networks; during economic downturns, facilitates
social networks for job searching and mutual emotional support
• Broadly speaking, social networks encompass all the routine social interaction we
have with other individuals.

E. Social Institutions
• Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on meeting
basic social needs, such as replacing personnel (the family) and preserving order (the
government).
1. Functionalist Perspective
• Five major tasks or functional prerequisites have been identified: (1) replacing
personnel, (2) teaching new recruits, (3) producing and distributing goods and
services, (4) preserving order, and (5) providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.
Example: Patriotism assists people in maintaining a sense of purpose.
• Any society or relatively permanent group must attempt to satisfy all these functional
prerequisites for survival.
2. Conflict Perspective
• The conflict perspective does not agree with functionalists that the outcome of
meeting basic needs is necessarily efficient and desirable for all members of society.
• Major institutions maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and
groups within a society, while contributing to the powerlessness of others.
Example: Public schools are financed largely by property taxes, so affluent areas
have better-equipped schools and better-paid teachers.
• Social institutions have an inherently conservative nature.
• Social institutions operate in gendered and racist environments.
• Social changes are needed to promote equality.
3. Interactionist Perspective
• Behavior is conditioned by roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we
belong, and the institutions within which we function. Example: The status of a judge
is in relation to other statuses.

III. Understanding Organizations

A. Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies

• A formal organization is a group designed for a special purpose and structured for
maximum efficiency. Example: the U.S. Postal Service
• Formal organizations have a bureaucratic form; and now have enormous influence
over our lives and society.

B. Characteristics of a Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical
ranking to achieve efficiency. Max Weber first noted the significance of bureaucratic
structure, emphasizing the basic similarity of structure and process found in the
otherwise dissimilar enterprises of religion, government, education, and business.

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 • For analytical purposes, Weber developed the “ideal type”—a construct or model for
evaluating specific cases. Weber’s idea bureaucracy had five characteristics:
1. Division of labor
• Can produce alienation—a condition of estrangement or dissociation
from the surrounding society
• Can lead to trained incapacity—workers become so specialized that they
develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.
2. Hierarchy of authority
3. Written rules and regulations
• Can create goal displacement—overzealous conformity to official
regulations
4. Impersonality
5. Employment based on technical qualifications
• Laurence J. Peter developed the “Peter principle”—every employee
within a hierarchy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence
1. Bureaucratization as a Process
• Bureaucratization is the process by which a group, organization, or social movement
becomes increasingly bureaucratic.
2. Oligarchy: Rule by a Few
• Theorist Robert Michels developed the iron law of oligarchy, which describes how
even a democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a
few, called an oligarchy.

C. Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

• According to the classical theory of formal organizations, or “scientific management
approach,” workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.
• The development of unions caused theorists to revise the classical approach and to
consider the impact of informal groups of workers. The “human relations approach”
emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

IV. Social Structure in Global Perspective

A. Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

• Mechanical solidarity exists in societies with a minimal division of labor.
A collective consciousness develops that emphasizes group solidarity.
• Organic solidarity exists in societies with a complex division of labor. It emphasizes
mutual interdependence among groups and institutions—in much the same way as
organs of the body are interdependent.

B. Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

• The Gemeinschaft community is typical of rural life. Social interactions are intimate
and familiar. There is a strong feeling of community; persons are not driven by self-
interest but by the needs of the whole. Informal sanctions may serve to enforce social
norms (since individuals are not protected by anonymity).
• The Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern life. Most people are
strangers and feel little in common with one another. See Table 5-4.

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 C. Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
• Lenski views human societies as undergoing a process of change characterized by a
dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution: long-term trends in societies
resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection. See Table 5-5.
• Technology is critical to the way society is organized. As technology advances, a
community evolves from a preindustrial to an industrial and finally a postindustrial
society.
1. Preindustrial Societies
• Hunting-and-gathering societies rely on available foods; technology is minimal.
• Horticultural societies plant seeds and grow crops rather than subsist only on
available foods.
• Agrarian societies increase crop yields, and technological innovations are more
dramatic (e.g., the plow). Their social structure has more carefully defined roles than
that of horticultural society.
2. Industrial Societies
• Society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.
• These societies are reliant on new inventions that facilitate agricultural and industrial
production, and on new sources of energy.
3. Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies
• A postindustrial society is technologically advanced. Its economic system is
primarily engaged in processing and controlling information. Its main output is
services.
• Postmodern society is technologically sophisticated and preoccupied with consumer
goods and media images.
• Postmodern theorists take a global perspective, noting ways that culture crosses
national boundaries. Examples: In the United States, people listen to reggae music
from Jamaica, eat sushi and other Japanese foods; and there are Disney Worlds in
Paris and Tokyo.

V. (Box) Social Policy and Organizations: The State of the Unions Worldwide

A. Looking at the Issue

• Labor unions consist of organized workers who share either the same skill or the
same employer.
• They have historically been restrictive and discriminatory in their practices; today in
some industries unions help keep wages competitive across races.
• Labor union strength varies wildly across countries, but it is declining worldwide for
the following reasons:
1. Changes in the type of industry
2. Growth in part-time jobs
3. The legal system
4. Globalization
5. Employer offensives

B. Applying Sociology
• Compared with their early incarnations, unions have become increasingly
bureaucratized under self-serving leadership

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 • Recent declines in private sector union membership have been linked to a widening
gap between hourly workers’ wages and managerial and executive compensation.

C. Initiating Policy
• U.S. law grants workers the right to unionize, but it is unique in allowing employers
to actively oppose unionization. Many elected officials are also seeking to reduce
union power.
• In Europe, unions are powerful and are a key part of the electoral process.
• Unions in China are far more likely to listen to the government than would
independent unions in other countries.

KEY TERMS

Achieved status A social position that a person attains largely through his or her own efforts.
Agrarian society The most technologically advanced form of preindustrial society. Members engage
primarily in the production of food, but increase their crop yields through technological innovations
such as the plow.
Alienation A condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.
Ascribed status A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s
unique talents or characteristics.
Bureaucracy A component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve
efficiency.
Bureaucratization The process by which a group, organization, or social movement becomes
increasingly bureaucratic.
Classical theory An approach to the study of formal organizations that views workers as being
motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.
Coalition A temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.
Formal organization A group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency.
Gemeinschaft A close-knit community, often found in rural areas, in which strong personal bonds
unite members.
Gesellschaft A community, often urban, that is large and impersonal, with little commitment to the
group or consensus on values.
Goal displacement Overzealous conformity to official regulations of a bureaucracy.
Group Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one
another on a regular basis.
Horticultural society A preindustrial society in which people plant seeds and crops rather than merely
subsist on available foods.
Human relations approach An approach to the study of formal organizations that emphasizes the role
of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy and tends to focus on the informal
structure of the organization.
Hunting-and-gathering society A preindustrial society in which people rely on whatever foods and
fibers are readily available in order to survive.
Hyperconsumerism The practice of buying more than we need or want, and often more than we can
afford; a preoccupation of postmodern consumers.

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 Ideal type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases.
Industrial society A society that depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.
In-group Any group or category to which people feel they belong.
Iron law of oligarchy A principle of organizational life under which even a democratic organization
will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few individuals.
Labor union Organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer.
Master status A status that dominates others and thereby determines a person’s general position in
society.
McDonalization The process by which the principles of bureaucratization have increasingly shaped
organizations worldwide.
Mechanical solidarity A collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity, characteristic of
societies with minimal division of labor.
Organic solidarity A collective consciousness that rests on mutual interdependence, characteristic of
societies with a complex division of labor.
Out-group A group or category to which people feel they do not belong.
Peter principle A principle of organizational life according to which every employee within a
hierarchy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.
Postindustrial society A society whose economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and
control of information.
Postmodern society A technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods
and media images.
Primary group A small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation.
Reference group Any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own
behavior.
Role conflict The situation that occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social
positions held by the same person.
Role exit The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to
establish a new role and identity.
Role strain The difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and
expectations.
Scientific management approach Another name for the classical theory of formal organizations.
Secondary group A formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual
understanding.
Social institution An organized pattern of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.
Social interaction The ways in which people respond to one another.
Social network A series of social relationships that links a person directly to others, and through them
indirectly to still more people.
Social role A set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.
Social structure The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.
Sociocultural evolution Long-term trends in societies resulting from the interplay of continuity,
innovation, and selection.
Status A term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within
a large group or society.

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 Technology Cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of the environment
may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.
Trained incapacity The tendency of workers in a bureaucracy to become so specialized that they
develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Describe the development of roles in the mock prison experiment.

2. Explain the ethical considerations that led to the end of Zimbardo’s prison experiments. Based on
what you learned about the sociological code of ethics in Chapter 2, do you believe that it was
appropriate to stop this experiment?
3. Use the concepts of social interaction and social structure to explain the events that transpired in
Zimbardo’s mock prison experiment.
4. Discuss the work of Herbert Blumer and William I. Thomas with respect to social interaction and
reality.
5. How do ascribed and achieved statuses serve to identify who a person is in a culture?
6. How does a master status differ from an ascribed status? An achieved status? Give an example of a
master status that is ascribed and then one that is achieved. Discuss.
7. How is disability a master status?
8. Distinguish between a medical model and a civil rights model of people with disabilities.
9. Explain the kinds of dilemmas a person may face in carrying out a social role.
10. Define and present an example of role conflict.
11. Delinaete role conflict, role strain, and role exit, and provide an example of each.
12. What is meant by role exit and how does it relate to the socialization process?
13. What part do groups play in a society’s social structure? Why does conflict develop between
in-groups and out-groups?
14. What impact, if any, has computer technology had on group formation?
15. How might a reference group help the process of anticipatory socialization?
16. What is meant by social networks?
17. What role do social networks play for women in the business world?
18. Delineate the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views of social institutions.
19. What are the five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to survive?
20. Describe the range of roles that formal organizations play in our society.
21. Outline the five basic characteristics that Max Weber argued every ideal bureaucracy must have.
22. What does the Peter principle suggest may be a problem of employment based on technical
qualifications in a bureaucracy?

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 23. Describe Michels’s iron law of oligarchy.
24. How does the human relations approach differ from the scientific management approach when
studying organizational culture?
25. Describe the differences between organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity.
26. Distinguish between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
27. How does Ferdinand Tönnies use ideal types?
28. Outline Gerhard Lenski’s discussion of sociocultural evolution.
29. Compare and contrast the approaches to social structure introduced by Émile Durkheim, Ferdinand
Tönnies, and Gerhard Lenski.
30. What role does technology play in the sociocultural evolution approach to understanding societies?
31. What are the differences among industrial, postindustrial, and postmodern societies?

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Would you have more respect for a person who is born wealthy or a person who becomes wealthy
through hard work? Address the differences associated with ascribed and achieved statuses in your
answer.
2. In the United States today, which type of factors do you believe are more important in shaping or
determining one’s social class—ascribed or achieved? Discuss.
3. Discuss the various ways a person may experience role strain. Give examples to support your
answer.
4. Describe how the impact of political terrorist attacks is likely to affect various social interactions
among groups. Include your own observations of events following the 9/11 terror attacks and the
war with Iraq in your answer.
5. Analyze the importance of social institutions from the three major sociological perspectives. How
are the views similar and different?
6. Discuss how social life and interaction would be affected if the Internet permanently disappeared
today. Use the sociocultural evolution approach to describe your predictions.

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 CHAPTER I

In Quest of the Perfect Book

 I
IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK

“Here is a fine volume,” a friend remarked, handing me a copy of The Ideal

Book, written and printed by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Press.
“It is,” I assented readily, turning the leaves, and enjoying the composite
beauty of the careful typography, and the perfect impression upon the soft,
handmade paper with the satisfaction one always feels when face to face with a
work of art. “Have you read it?”
“Why—no,” he answered. “I picked it up in London, and they told me it
was a rare volume. You don’t necessarily read rare books, do you?”
My friend is a cultivated man, and his attitude toward his latest acquisition
irritated me; yet after thirty years of similar disappointments I should not have
been surprised. How few, even among those interested in books, recognize the
fine, artistic touches that constitute the difference between the commonplace
and the distinguished! The volume under discussion was written by an
authority foremost in the art of bookmaking; its producer was one of the few
great master-printers and binders in the history of the world; yet the only
significance it possessed to its owner was the fact that some one in whom he
had confidence had told him it was rare! Being rare, he coveted the treasure,
and acquired it with no greater understanding than if it had been a piece of
Chinese jade.
“What makes you think this is a fine book?” I inquired, deliberately
changing the approach.
He laughed consciously. “It cost me nine guineas—and I like the looks of
it.”
Restraint was required not to say something that might have affected our
friendship unpleasantly, and friendship is a precious thing.
“Do something for me,” I asked quietly. “That is a short book. Read it
through, even though it is rare, and then let us continue this conversation we
have just begun.”
 A few days later he invited me to dine with him at his club. “I asked you
here,” he said, “because I don’t want any one, even my family, to hear what I
am going to admit to you. I have read that book, and I’d rather not know what
you thought of my consummate ignorance of what really enters into the
building of a well-made volume—the choice of type, the use of decoration, the
arrangement of margins. Why, bookmaking is an art! Perhaps I should have
known that, but I never stopped to think about it.”
One does have to stop and think about a well-made book in order to
comprehend the difference between printing that is merely printing and that
which is based upon art in its broadest sense and upon centuries of precedent.
It does require more than a gleam of intelligence to grasp the idea that the
basis of every volume ought to be the thought expressed by the writer; that the
type, the illustrations, the decorations, the paper, the binding, simply combine
to form the vehicle to convey that expression to the reader. When, however,
this fact is once absorbed, one cannot fail to understand that if these various
parts, which compositely comprise the whole, fail to harmonize with the
subject and with each other, then the vehicle does not perform its full and
proper function.
I wondered afterward if I had not been a bit too superior in my attitude
toward my friend. As a matter of fact, printing as an art has returned to its
own only within the last quarter-century. Looking back to 1891, when I began
to serve my apprenticeship under John Wilson at the old University Press in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, the broadness of the profession that I was
adopting as my life’s work had not as yet unfolded its unlimited possibilities.
At that time the three great American printers were John Wilson, Theodore L.
De Vinne, and Henry O. Houghton. The volumes produced under their
supervision were perfect examples of the best bookmaking of the period, yet
no one of these three men looked upon printing as an art. It was William
Morris who in modern times first joined these two words together by the
publication of his magnificent Kelmscott volumes. Such type, such
decorations, such presswork, such sheer, composite beauty!
This was in 1895. Morris, in one leap, became the most famous printer in
the world. Every one tried to produce similar volumes, and the resulting
productions, made without appreciating the significance of decoration
combined with type, were about as bad as they could be. I doubt if, at the
present moment, there exists a single one of these sham Kelmscotts made in
America that the printer or the publisher cares to have recalled to him.
 When the first flair of Morris’ popularity passed away, and his volumes
were judged on the basis of real bookmaking, they were classified as
marvelously beautiful objets d’art rather than books—composites of Burne-
Jones, the designer, and William Morris, the decorator-printer, co-workers in
sister arts; but from the very beginning Morris’ innovations showed the world
that printing still belonged among the fine arts. The Kelmscott books awoke in
me an overwhelming desire to put myself into the volumes I produced. I
realized that no man can give of himself beyond what he possesses, and that to
make my ambition worth accomplishing I must absorb and make a part of
myself the beauty of the ancient manuscripts and the early printed books. This
led me to take up an exhaustive study of the history of printing.
 JOHN GUTENBERG, c. 1400–1468
From Engraving by Alphonse Descaves
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Until then Gutenberg’s name, in my mind, had been preëminent. As I

proceeded, however, I came to know that he was not really the “inventor” of
printing, as I had always thought him to be; that he was the one who first
foresaw the wonderful power of movable types as a material expression of the
thought of man, rather than the creator of anything previously unknown. I
discovered that the Greeks and the Romans had printed from stamps centuries
earlier, and that the Chinese and the Koreans had cut individual characters in
metal.
 I well remember the thrill I experienced when I first realized—and at the
time thought my discovery was original!—that, had the Chinese or the
Saracens possessed Gutenberg’s wit to join these letters together into words,
the art of printing must have found its way to Constantinople, which would
have thus become the center of culture and learning in the fifteenth century.

From this point on, my quest seemed a part of an Arabian Nights’ tale.
Cautiously opening a door, I would find myself in a room containing treasures
of absorbing interest. From this room there were doors leading in different
directions into other rooms even more richly filled; and thus onward, with
seemingly no end, to the fascinating rewards that came through effort and
perseverance.
Germany, although it had produced Gutenberg, was not sufficiently
developed as a nation to make his work complete. The open door led me away
from Germany into Italy, where literary zeal was at its height. The life and
customs of the Italian people of the fifteenth century were spread out before
me. In my imagination I could see the velvet-gowned agents of the wealthy
patrons of the arts searching out old manuscripts and giving commissions to
the scribes to prepare hand-lettered copies for their masters’ libraries. I could
mingle with the masses and discover how eager they were to learn the truth in
the matter of religion, and the cause and the remedies of moral and material
evils by which they felt themselves oppressed. I could share with them their
expectant enthusiasm and confidence that the advent of the printing press
would afford opportunity to study description and argument where previously
they had merely gazed at pictorial design. I could sense the desire of the
people for books, not to place in cabinets, but to read in order to know; and I
could understand why workmen who had served apprenticeships in Germany
so quickly sought out Italy, the country where princes would naturally become
patrons of the new art, where manuscripts were ready for copy, and where a
public existed eager to purchase their products.
While striving to sense the significance of the conflicting elements I felt
around me, I found much of interest in watching the scribes fulfilling their
commissions to prepare copies of original manuscripts, becoming familiar for
the first time with the primitive methods of book manufacture and
distribution. A monastery possessed an original manuscript of value. In its
scriptorium (the writing office) one might find perhaps twenty or thirty monks
seated at desks, each with a sheet of parchment spread out before him, upon
which he inscribed the words that came to him in the droning, singsong voice
of the reader selected for the duty because of his familiarity with the subject
matter of the volume. The number of desks the scriptorium could accommodate
determined the size of this early “edition.”
When these copies were completed, exchanges were made with other
monasteries that possessed other original manuscripts, of which copies had
been made in a similar manner. I was even more interested in the work of the
secular scribes, usually executed at their homes, for it was to these men that
the commissions were given for the beautiful humanistic volumes. As they had
taken up the art of hand lettering from choice or natural aptitude instead of as
a part of monastic routine, they were greater artists and produced volumes of
surpassing beauty. A still greater interest in studying this art of hand lettering
lay in the knowledge that it soon must become a lost art, for no one could
doubt that the printing press had come to stay.
Then, turning to the office of Aldus, I pause for a moment to read the
legend placed conspicuously over the door:
Whoever thou art, thou art earnestly requested by Aldus to state thy business briefly
and to take thy departure promptly. In this way thou mayest be of service even as was
Hercules to the weary Atlas, for this is a place of work for all who may enter
 ALDUS MANUTIUS, 1450–1515
From Engraving at the British Museum

But inside the printing office I find Aldus and his associates talking of
other things than the books in process of manufacture. They are discussing the
sudden change of attitude on the part of the wealthy patrons of the arts who,
after welcoming the invention of printing, soon became alarmed by the
enthusiasm of the people, and promptly reversed their position. No wonder
that Aldus should be concerned as to the outcome! The patrons of the arts
represented the culture and wealth and political power of Italy, and they now
discovered in the new invention an actual menace. To them the magnificent
illuminated volumes of the fifteenth century were not merely examples of
decoration, but they represented the tribute that this cultured class paid to the
thought conveyed, through the medium of the written page, from the author
to the world. This jewel of thought they considered more valuable than any
costly gem. They perpetuated it by having it written out on parchment by the
most accomplished scribes; they enriched it by illuminated embellishments
executed by the most famous artists; they protected it with bindings in which
they actually inlaid gold and silver and jewels. To have this thought cheapened
by reproduction through the commonplace medium of mechanical printing
wounded their æsthetic sense. It was an expression of real love of the book
that prompted Bisticci, the agent of so powerful a patron as the Duke of
Urbino, to write of the Duke’s splendid collection in the latter part of the
fifteenth century:
In that library the books are all beautiful in a superlative degree, and all written
by the pen. There is not a single one of them printed, for it would have been a shame to
have one of that sort.
Aldus is not alarmed by the solicitude of the patrons for the beauty of the
book. He has always known that in order to exist at all the printed book must
compete with the written volume; and he has demonstrated that, by supplying
to the accomplished illuminators sheets carefully printed on parchment, he can
produce volumes of exquisite beauty, of which no collector need be ashamed.
Aldus knows that there are other reasons behind the change of front on the
part of the patrons. Libraries made up of priceless manuscript volumes are
symbols of wealth, and through wealth comes power. With the multiplication
of printed books this prestige will be lessened, as the masses will be enabled to
possess the same gems of thought in less extravagant and expensive form. If,
moreover, the people are enabled to read, criticism, the sole property of the
scholars, will come into their hands, and when they once learn self-reliance
from their new intellectual development they are certain to attack dogma and
political oppression, even at the risk of martyrdom. The princes and patrons
of Italy are intelligent enough to know that their self-centered political power
is doomed if the new art of printing secures a firm foothold.
What a relief to such a man as Aldus when it became fully demonstrated
that the desire on the part of the people to secure books in order to learn was
too great to be overcome by official mandate or insidious propaganda! With
what silent satisfaction did he settle back to continue his splendid work! The
patrons, in order to show what a poor thing the printed book really was, gave
orders to the scribes and the illuminators to prepare volumes for them in such
quantities that the art of hand lettering received a powerful impetus, as a result
of which the hand letters themselves attained their highest point of perfection.
This final struggle on the part of the wealthy overlords resulted only in
redoubling the efforts of the artist master-printers to match the beauty of the
written volumes with the products from their presses.
These Arabian Nights’ experiences occupied me from 1895, when Morris
demonstrated the unlimited possibilities of printing as an art, until 1901, when
I first visited Italy and gave myself an opportunity to become personally
acquainted with the historical landmarks of printing, which previously I had
known only from study. In Florence it was my great good fortune to become
intimately acquainted with the late Doctor Guido Biagi, at that time librarian
of the Laurenziana and the Riccardi libraries, and the custodian of the Medici,
the Michelangelo, and the da Vinci archives. I like to think of him as I first saw
him then, sitting on a bench in front of one of the carved plutei designed by
Michelangelo, in the wonderful Sala di Michelangiolo in the Laurenziana Library,
studying a beautifully illuminated volume resting before him, which was
fastened to the desk by one of the famous old chains. He greeted me with an
old-school courtesy. When he discovered my genuine interest in the books he
loved, and realized that I came as a student eager to listen to the master’s word,
his face lighted up and we were at once friends.
 Dott. Comm. GUIDO BIAGI
Seated at one of the plutei in the
Laurenziana Library, Florence (1906)

In the quarter of a century which passed from this meeting until his death
we were fellow-students, and during that period I never succeeded in
exhausting the vast store of knowledge he possessed, even though he gave of
it with the freest generosity. From him I learned for the first time of the far-
reaching influence of the humanistic movement upon everything that had to
do with the litteræ humaniores, and this new knowledge enabled me to crystallize
much that previously had been fugitive. “The humanist,” Doctor Biagi
explained to me, “whether ancient or modern, is one who holds himself open
to receive Truth, unprejudiced as to its source, and—what is more important
—after having received Truth realizes his obligation to the world to give it out
again, made richer by his personal interpretation.”
This humanistic movement was the forerunner and the essence of the
Renaissance, being in reality a revolt against the barrenness of mediævalism.
Until then ignorance, superstition, and tradition had confined intellectual life
on all sides, but the little band of humanists, headed by Petrarch, put forth a
claim for the mental freedom of man and for the full development of his
being. As a part of this claim they demanded the recognition of the rich
humanities of Greece and Rome, which were proscribed by the Church. If this
claim had been postponed another fifty years, the actual manuscripts of many
of the present standard classics would have been lost to the world.
The significance of the humanistic movement in its bearing upon the
Quest of the Perfect Book is that the invention of printing fitted exactly into
the Petrarchian scheme by making it possible for the people to secure volumes
that previously, in their manuscript form, could be owned only by the wealthy
patrons. This was the point at which Doctor Biagi’s revelation and my previous
study met. The Laurenziana Library contains more copies of the so-called
humanistic manuscripts, produced in response to the final efforts on the part
of patrons to thwart the increasing popularity of the new art of printing, than
any other single library. Doctor Biagi proudly showed me some of these
treasures, notably Antonio Sinibaldi’s Virgil. The contrast between the hand
lettering in these volumes and the best I had ever seen before was startling.
Here was a hand letter, developed under the most romantic and dramatic
conditions, which represented the apotheosis of the art. The thought flashed
through my mind that all the types in existence up to this point had been
based upon previous hand lettering less beautiful and not so perfect in
execution.
“Why is it,” I demanded excitedly, “that no type has ever been designed
based upon this hand lettering at its highest point of perfection?”
 HAND-WRITTEN HUMANISTIC CHARACTERS
From Sinibaldi’s Virgil, 1485
Laurenziana Library, Florence (12 × 8 inches)

Doctor Biagi looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. “This, my friend,”

he answered, smiling, “is your opportunity.”
At this point began one of the most fascinating and absorbing adventures
in which any one interested in books could possibly engage. At some time, I
suppose, in the life of every typographer comes the ambition to design a
special type, so it was natural that the idea contained in Doctor Biagi’s remark
should suggest possibilities which filled me with enthusiasm. I was familiar
with the history of the best special faces, and had learned how difficult each
ambitious designer had found the task of translating drawings into so rigid a
medium as metal; so I reverted soberly and with deep respect to the subject of
type design from the beginning.
In studying the early fonts of type, I found them exact counterfeits of the
best existing forms of hand lettering at that time employed by the scribes. The
first Italic font cut by Aldus, for instance, is said to be based upon the thin,
inclined handwriting of Petrarch. The contrast between these slavish copies of
hand-lettered models and the mechanical precision of characters turned out by
modern type founders made a deep impression. Of the two I preferred the
freedom of the earliest types, but appreciated how ill adapted these models
were to the requirements of typography. A hand-lettered page, even with the
inevitable irregularities, is pleasing because the scribe makes a slight variation
in forming the various characters. When, however, an imperfect letter is cut in
metal, and repeated many times upon the same page, the irregularity forces
itself unpleasantly upon the eye. Nicolas Jenson was the first to realize this,
and in his famous Roman type he made an exact interpretation of what the
scribe intended to accomplish in each of the letters, instead of copying any
single hand letter, or making a composite of many hand designs of the same
character. For this reason the Jenson type has not only served as the basis of
the best standard Roman fonts down to the present time, but has also proved
the inspiration for later designs of distinctive type faces, such as William
Morris’ Golden type, and Emery Walker’s Doves type.
 Specimen Page of proposed Edition of Dante. To be
printed by Bertieri, of Milan, in Humanistic Type (8¼ × 6)

William Morris’ experience is an excellent illustration of the difficulties a

designer experiences. He has left a record of how he studied the Jenson type
with great care, enlarging it by photography, and redrawing it over and over
again before he began designing his own letter. When he actually produced his
Golden type the design was far too much inclined to the Gothic to resemble
the model he selected. His Troy and Chaucer types that followed showed the
strong effect of the German influence that the types of Schoeffer, Mentelin,
and Gunther Zainer made upon him. The Doves type is based flatly upon the
Jenson model; yet it is an absolutely original face, retaining all the charm of the
model, to which is added the artistic genius of the designer. Each receives its
personality from the understanding and interpretation of the creator (pages 22,
23).

Jenson’s Roman Type.

From Cicero: Rhetorica, Venice, 1470 (Exact size)
 Emery Walker’s Doves Type.
From Paradise Regained, London, 1905 (Exact size)

From this I came to realize that it is no more necessary for a type designer
to express his individuality by adding or subtracting from his model than for a
portrait painter to change the features of his subject because some other artist
has previously painted it. Wordsworth once said that the true portrait of a man
shows him, not as he looks at any one moment of his life, but as he really
looks all the time. This is equally true of a hand letter, and explains the vast
differences in the cut of the same type face by various foundries and for the
typesetting machines. All this convinced me that, if I were to make the
humanistic letters the model for my new type, I must follow the example of
Emery Walker rather than that of William Morris.
 During the days spent in the small, cell-like alcove which had been turned
over for my use in the Laurenziana Library, I came so wholly under the
influence of the peculiar atmosphere of antiquity that I felt myself under an
obsession of which I have not been conscious before or since. My enthusiasm
was abnormal, my efforts tireless. The world outside seemed very far away, the
past seemed very near, and I was indifferent to everything except the task
before me. This curious experience was perhaps an explanation of how the
monks had been able to apply themselves so unceasingly to their prodigious
labors, which seem beyond the bounds of human endurance.
My work at first was confined to a study of the humanistic volumes in the
Laurenziana Library, and the selection of the best examples to be taken as final
models for the various letters. From photographed reproductions of selected
manuscript pages, I took out fifty examples of each letter. Of these fifty,
perhaps a half-dozen would be almost identical, and from these I learned the
exact design the scribe endeavored to repeat. I also decided to introduce the
innovation of having several characters for certain letters that repeated most
frequently, in order to preserve the individuality of the hand lettering, and still
keep my design within the rigid limitations of type. Of the letter e, for instance,
eight different designs were finally selected; there were five a’s, two m’s, and so
on (see illustration at page 32).
After becoming familiar with the individual letters as shown in the
Laurenziana humanistic volumes, I went on to Milan and the Ambrosiana
Library, with a letter from Doctor Biagi addressed to the librarian, Monsignor
Ceriani, explaining the work upon which I was engaged, and seeking his co-
operation. It would be impossible to estimate Ceriani’s age at that time, but he
was very old. He was above middle height, his frame was slight, his eyes
penetrating and burning with a fire that showed at a glance how affected he
was by the influence to which I have already referred. His skin resembled in
color and texture the very parchment of the volumes he handled with such
affection, and in his religious habit he seemed the embodiment of ancient
learning.
After expressing his deep interest in my undertaking, he turned to a
publication upon which he himself was engaged, the reproduction in facsimile
of the earliest known manuscript of Homer’s Iliad. The actual work on this, he
explained, was being carried on by his assistant, a younger priest whom he