Howard W. Odum
by Rupert B. Vance and Katharine Jocher
Source: Social Forces, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1955), pp. 203-217
HOWARD W. ODUM
RUPERT B. VANCE AND KATHARINE JOCHER
University of North Carolina
HOWARD W. ODUM died November 8, 1954, aged 70 years. He had retired in September as Kenan Professor of Sociology
and was working on three books. Professor Odum was born near Bethlehem, Georgia, May 24, 1884 and grew up as a farm boy in post-Reconstruction Georgia. The two family lines-his mother, descended from slave-owning families and his father,
a small farmer four years her junior-are treated in An American Epoch, 1930. In 1897 the family moved to Oxford, Georgia, in order to send the children to Emory Academy and College.
Odum's education was secured in the classics-Greek, Latin and English-
and was achieved by benefit of hard work, borrowed money and rural
school teaching. After graduating at Emory College, A.B., 1904, Odum
taught a rural school at Toccopola, Mississippi, 18 miles from the railroad.
Fortunately it was only 21 miles from another Oxford, the seat of "Ole
Miss." Here Odum taught as fellow, studied, collected folklore, observed
and recorded Negro life, and earned an M.A. in the classics, 1906. Both
at Emory and the University of Mississippi he encountered able teachers
and colleagues who understood his combination of eagerness and timidity.
One fellow student was Stark Young; a teacher was T. P. Bailey, a
recent Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. It was Professor Bailey
who helped Odum make the change to the social sciences and apply for a
fellowship at Clark with G. Stanley Hall. Armed with a collection of Negro
folk songs and studies of Negro town life, Odum took one Ph.D. in psychology
with Hall at Clark in 1909 and another in 1910 in sociology at
Columbia University with Franklin H. Giddings.
Odum wanted to go South to develop sociology, missed an appointment
at Washington and Lee, and went instead to Philadelphia where he
did a study of the Negro in the public schools of the city for the Bureau
of Municipal Research. In 1912 he went to the College of Education at
the University of Georgia and thence to Emory as Professor of Sociology
and Dean of Liberal Arts. As chairman of the Committee of Deans he
aided in Emory's move to Atlanta and its transition to university status.
203
204 SOCIAL FORCES
In 1920 he made his last and definitive move to the University of North
Carolina, an academic home which was to witness 34 crowded years of
achievement.
Odum joined the faculty in September 1920, just as the University was
moving into a decade of its most notable development. At Emory, Asa
Candler was reported to have said, "Odum wants to build a university
overnight and to build it his own way." At Carolina he embarked on a
period of brilliant promotion and organization of scholarly research and
teaching.
Professor Odum organized and staffed the new Department of Sociology.
North Carolina had pioneered in the Nation in setting up a distinctive
public welfare program and Odum organized the School of Public Welfare
and became its first director in 1925. He founded and edited the sociological
journal, Social Forces (1922-) and on the authorization of President
Harry W. Chase and the Trustees, 1924, established the Institute for Research
in Social Science. To his closest associates Odum occasionally
recounted his meeting at a Charlotte hotel with Beardsley Ruml, director
of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. Evidently it represented a
meeting of two first-class minds-an able promotor of scholarship vis-avis
a shrewd judge of men.
Odum edited a Social Study Series for the University of North Carolina
Press and a textbook series, the American Social Science Series, for
Henry Holt.
To the casual observer Odum appeared to go from one administrative
triumph to another. Elsewhere he has listed what he considered his major
defeats: (1) the failure of his effort to locate a distinguished School of
Public Administration at the University, (2) the depression's defeat of
his effort to secure halls of Social Science and All American Culture at the
Chicago Century of Progress World Fair in 1933, (3) failure to develop a
State Planning Board for North Carolina, and (4) failure to secure acceptance
of his report advising the reorganizationo f the State Prison System.
In all his activities Dr. Odum's sound training, his unlimited energy
and enthusiasm, and his judgment and skill as an administrator were
freely placed at the disposal of the University and aided it materially in
the attainment of the status of a national institution. One of his last tasks
was to help develop a Division of City and Regional Planning at the University,
1946. Organizations he founded were turned over to others to
administer, for Odum never intended to give up his first love-creative
scholarship.
In scholarship the complexity and integration of Odum's mental processes
were apparent. His early studies of village life of Negroes in Mississippi
showed him to be more than an avid collector of folk songs and folklore.
Here also was the beginning of his interest in the South as a region
and in folk sociology as discipline. The opening sentences of his Clark
HOWARD W. ODUM 205
dissertation stated a theme which he always kept in mind: "To know the
soul of a people and to find the source from which flows the expression of
folk thought is to comprehend in a large measure the capabilities of that
people. To explain the truest expression of the folk mind and feeling is
to reveal much of the inner consciousness of a race."
Odum had a wide range of research interests, but his first and most persistent
interest was the field of Negro life and race relations.* His earliest
publications resulted from the collection of Negro folk songs which he
began as a young school teacher in the Deep South. In 1909 he published
a hundred-pagea rticle, "ReligiousF olk-Songso f the SouthernN egroes,"
in The American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, and in
1911 he had a lengthy article on "Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found
in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes" in The Journal of American
Folk-Lore.
His real opus as a young man, however, was the volume entitled Social
and Mental Traits of the Negro, published in 1910 in the Columbia University
Studies of History, Economics and Public Law. In this work
Odum was trying "to reach some insight into what the Negro appears to
be and what he really is, what he may desire to be and what he may
possibly become in his future development." The book was packed with
factual details on the institutions and behavior of the Negro masses in
the South, and it maintained what certainly must have seemed at that
time an "objective" approach. However, Odum shared the then current
"scientific" assumptions concerning racial differences, and his book was
interlaced with them. For example, segregation was a taken-for-granted
arrangement, the Negro was different, if not inferior, mentally and
morally, and he should look for happiness not in the aspiration to become
like white people but in the development of his own talents on his
own level of civilization. It was a drastic picture of Negro life, realistically
reported.
In the next twenty years science did an about-face on racial differences,
and Odum became quite accustomed to sharp criticisms of his 1910 book.
He was apparently little disturbed by them, for he rarely bothered to
notice them, and he saw no reason for any formal "repudiation" of the
book. In at least one instance he did suggest to the author of a critical
footnote that he cite the date of publication of Social and Mental Traits
of the Negro, as if to say, "After all, how many people are there who wrote
on the Negro forty years ago and are still writing today?" To re-read
today his chapter on Home Life and Morals in the light of changes is to
reaffirma s Odumd id continuallyo ne's optimisma nd faith in the Negro's
development and destiny.
For about fifteen years after his early work on the Negro, Odum was
busy making a living with teaching and administrative work, and his
* In the estimate of Odum's work in Negro life we have had the help of Guy B. Johnson.
206 SOCIAL FORCES
writing lagged. At North Carolina he came into the flowering of his
creative scholarship. Again he was complex and many-sided, as the
twenty-odd books and almost two hundred journal articles and brochures
listed in his bibliography will show. North Carolina's public welfare program
Odum saw as initiating the change in status of the underprivileged
from clients of private philanthropy to citizens seeking the rights of social
security from the community. In adapting the new public welfare to the
task of making democracy effective in the unequal places he edited a
volume of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, 1923, and with D. W. Willard wrote and edited Systems of Public
Welfare, 1925, with his own prophetic last chapter on "The Movement
for a Federal Department." In opening up the field of regional development
he edited a symposium on Southern Pioneers in Social Interpretation,
1925, beginning with a sentence of unmistakable meaning: "Why, then,
are the Southern States so barren of individual leaders who represent the
highest achievement in their fields?" In collaboration with Guy B. Johnson,
Odum returned to folk sources and in The Negro and His Songs,
1925, and Negro WorkadayS ongs, 1926,-g ave secular songs a place alongside
spirituals.
These two books were happily timed to coincide with, if not initiate
the rising tide of interest in Negro folk culture. Then came what he called
his trilogy: Rainbow Round My Shoulder, 1928; Wings on My Feet, 1929;
Cold Blue Moon, 1931. These portray the loves and sayings of a semi-fictional
Negro named Left-Wing Gordon-prose poetry in the wanderings
of a Black Ulysses. By now Odum's approach to the Negro folk character
was so sympathetic and appreciative as to bring charges from certain
upper-class Negroes that he was glamorizing crudity and immorality. He
never let such complaints ruffle him, and his answer to the literary critics'
speculation as to whether Left-Wing Gordon was real or fictitious was,
"What difference does it make?"
After 1930 Odum's major research interests turned to regionalism and
general sociology. With Man's Quest for Social Guidance, 1927, Odum
published his first text and in the phrasing of the title showed his commitment
to social science as a guide for social action. With Katharine
Jocher he wrote An Introduction to Social Research, 1929, an early treatise
on methods in the social sciences.
At the request of President Herbert Hoover, Odum was instrumental
in setting up and securing the grant for the monumental Recent Social
Trends in the United States, 1933, report of the President's Commission,
and its 13 monographs. With William F. Ogburn he was Assistant Director
of Research and helped edit the volumes. He also wrote the chapter
on Public Welfare. By 1936 five years had passed without a major book
from his pen. In working on Recent Social Trends Odum had faced the
problem of accounting for national development in the divergencies of
HOWARD W. ODUM 207
regional trends. In Southern Regions of the United States, 1936, Odum
achieved the synthesis of his mature thought in regional theory, Southern
development, and a cultural-statistical approach to the analysis of
regional divergence and national integration. For a work of such size and
complexity the public's reception was little short of amazing. It became
a basic book in courses and seminars, had an important impact on policy
and thought, went through four printings and had books, commentaries,
and pamphlets written about it. With Harry E. Moore he applied this
analysis to the whole country and depicted the Nation's six major regions
in American Regionalism, 1938. In retrospect regionalism represents the
high point of Odum's achievement and influence. He had now become a
public figure.
Odum's work went further than interpreting the South to the Nation
and the Nation to the South. It pointed to one possible integration of
social science; it projected trends of development for the South; and it
cried aloud for implementation in social action and social planning. For
all the reactions the new discipline met in the region, Odum never concealed
the fact that he was a sociologist and that certain social theories
implied certain appropriate social action. Odum's mature thought on
regional-nationailn tegration was well stated in his paper, "The Promise
of Regionalism," at the University of Wisconsin Centennial, Regionalism
in America, 1951.
Odum's practical interests were as varied as his scholarly interests, and
they found expression in his services to numerous official agencies and
voluntary organizations. He shunned personal publicity, and many of his
friends did not know that he advised presidents and governors or that at
any given moment he was likely to be serving as chairman of half a dozen
State and regional organizations. However, he was not a "joiner" or a
"do-gooder."H e saw organizationsa nd officesa s instrumentsw hich were
good only if they contributed to the more efficient utilization of man's
intelligence and capacity for progressive adaptation. He could rarely be
persuaded to retain a chairmanship more than a year or two, because he
felt that if he had any contribution to make he could make it within a
short time. He kept out of the personal political conflicts which he found
in many organizations,a nd it saddenedh im to see organizationsb ecoming
stale because their leaders had acquired strong vested interests. "Any
organization," he said, "ought to know when to quit."
In American Sociology, 1951, his last major work to be completed, Odum
made his first and only essay into the history and theory of sociology as
such. The book told much about Odum and his personality. He could be
starkly critical of movements but not of men.
Colleagues and scholars delighted to honor Odum. Four honorary degrees
recapitulated both his biography and his contributions in public
service and the arts: Emory University, LL.D., 1931; College of the
208 SOCIAL FORCES
Ozarks, Litt.D., 1935; Harvard University, LL.D., 1939; and Clark
University, L.H.D., 1941.
He served as president of the American Sociological Society in 1930,
received the Bernays Award for interracial cooperation in 1945, the
Catholic Conference of the South distinguished service award in 1943,
the American Jersey Cattle Club's award as "Master Breeder" in 1948,
and the 0. Max Gardner Award in 1953 to the member of the University
faculty "making the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human
race." He held distinguished positions as visiting professor or lecturer at
Yale, Columbia, the Universities of Washington, Illinois, Southern
California, Utah, and many others. At the time of his death he held a
grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Odum left a vast mass of literary remains-work in progress. His new
Mid-Century South: The New Southern Regions of the United States, it is
felt, can be carried on through to completion. It will be a statement of his
maturing thought both on regionalism and on the great social changes in
the South from 1930 to 1950. His sociological system, left incomplete,
reachedi ts fullest statement to date in UnderstandingS ociety, 1947. Most
lacking here is a definitive work on folk sociology, best outlined in relation
to contemporary theory in his Social Forces article of March 1953. Important
for folk sociology, it also demonstrated the extent to which Odum
kept abreast of developments in social theory. Whether this can be completed
is as yet undetermined. Also left unfinished was an autobiographical
work, the White Sands of Bethlehem.
Odum was married in 1910 to Anna Louise Kranz-a classmate and
M.A. graduate at Clark. There are three children: a daughter, Mary
Frances Schinhan; and two sons, Eugene Pleasants and Howard Thomas,
both ecologists, one at the University of Georgia, the other at Duke
University.
Howard Odum was a complex personality whose deceptively simple
manner concealed neither his energy nor his scholarship. He played many
roles and yet they were well integrated-teacher, sociologist, folklorist,
prose poet, administrator, promoter, and breeder of pedigreed Jersey
stock.
As a scholar he put in long hours of work through the night and then
surprised colleagues with his vigorous teaching and gifts for promoting
and administering the tasks of organized research. A true intellectual, he
derided the intelligentsia to his students, extolling instead the values of
the folk. He became a public figure in the development of the South and
his advice and counsel were sought on many sides. He was a Master
Breeder of pedigreed Jerseys-one of five in the United States acclaimed
for the development of a genetic type by the American Jersey Cattle Club.
Odum delighted to surprise his friends by saying that his bulls were
worth more than his books. Withal he had especial gifts in the area of
HOWARD W. ODUM 209
personal relations. All who knew him well realize that this quality went
beyond the bounds of personal charm-a quality with which he was well
endowed.
Odum was often very conscious of the break in development in other
departments left by the departure of an overwhelming figure. He believed
in his specialties and wished to see them carried on, yet he guarded against
discipleship and inbreeding. It can be said that he did what he humanly
could to guard against leaving a fabric which would dissolve at his going.
For all he could do, his going-in the figure he loved from the classical
poets-left a void against the sky.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Despair or blame, nothing but well and fair
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD W. ODUM
Books and Monographs
Religiouss Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes. Clark University Doctoral Dissertations, 1909.
Social and Mental Traits of the Negro: Research into the Conditions of the Negro Race in Southern
Towns. ("Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law,"
Vol. 37, No. 3.) New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1910. Pp. 302.
The Negro and His Songs: A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South (with Guy B. Johnson).
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925. Pp. 306.
Southern Pioneers in Social Interpretation (ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1925. Pp. 221.
Systems of Public Welfare (with D. W. Willard). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1925. Pp. 302.
An Approach to Public Wefare and Sockl Work. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1926. Pp. 178.
Negro Workaday Songs (with Guy B. Johnson). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1926. Pp. 278.
American Masters of Social Science': An Approach to the Study of Social Science through a Neglected
Field of Biography (ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. Pp. 411.
Man's Quest for Social Guidance. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. Pp. 643.
Rainbow Round My Shoulder: The Blue Trail of Black Ulysses. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill
Company, 1928. Pp. 323. Reprinted by Grosset and Dunlap in their series, "Novels of
Distinction." Listed by the American Library Association in "Forty American Books of
1928 (Journal of the National Education Association, XVIII [December 19291, pp. 313-
314).
Wings on My Feet: Black Ulysses at the Wars. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1929.
Pp. 309.
An Introduction to Social Research (with Katharine Jocher). New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1929. Pp. 488.
An American Epoch: Southern Portraiture in the National Picture. New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 1930. Pp. 379.
Cold Blue Moon: Black Ulysses Afar Off. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1931. Pp. 277.
Collaborated in Prospecting for Heaven: Some Conversations about Science and the Good Life,
by Edwin R. Embree. New York: Viking Press, 1932. Pp. 185. Passim.
Arranged and edited Civilization and Society: An Account of the Development and Behavior
of Human Society, by Franklin Henry Giddings. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
1932. Pp. 412.
210 SOCIAL FORCES
Recent Social Trends in the United States. 2 vols. Findings of the President's Committee on
Social Trends (Assistant Director of Research and Co-Editor. Also contributed chap.
XXIV, "Public Welfare Activities"). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1933.
Southern Regions of the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936.
Pp. 664.
American Regionalism: A Cultural-Historical Approach to National Integration (with Harry
Estill Moore). New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1938. Pp. 693.
American Social Problems: An Introduction to the Study of the People and Their Dilemmas.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1939. Pp. 549. rev. ed., 1945. Pp. 549.
American Democracy Anew: An Approach to the Understanding of Our Social Problems (with
Harold D. Meyer, B. S. Holden, and Fred M. Alexander). New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1940. Pp. 614.
Alabama Past and Future: The States at Work Series (with Gladstone H. Yeuell and Charles
G. Summersell). Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1941. Pp. 401.
Race and Rumors of Race: Challenge to American Crisis. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1943. Pp. 245.
In Search of the Regional Balance of America (edited with Katharine Jocher). Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1945. Pp. 162 (A publication commemorating the
Sesqui-Centennial of the University of North Carolina. Reprinted from Social Forces,
XXIII [March 1945]).
Understanding Society: The Principles of Dynamic Sociology. New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1947. Pp. 749.
The Way of the South: Toward the Regional Balance of America. New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1947. Pp. 350.
American Sociology: The Story of Sociology in the United States to 1950. New York: Longmans,
Green and Company, 1951. Pp. 501.
Articles, Brochures, Chapters, Pamphlets
"Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes," American Journal of Religious Psychology
and Education, III (July 1909), 265-365.
"Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes,"
Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXIV (July-September 1911), 255-294; (October-December
1911), 251-396.
Hygiene in the Schools of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Bureau of Municipal Research, 1912.
"Negro Children in the Public Schools of Philadelphia," Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science (September 1913), pp. 186-208.
"The Relation of the High School to Rural Life and Education," High School Quarterly
(April 1914), pp. 139-147.
"School Values in Boys' and Girls' Club Work," Girls' and Boys' Club Work, Georgia State
College of Agriculture, 1914, pp. 5-10.
The Place of Animal Husbandry in the Schools. University of Georgia Extension Publications,
1914.
Practical Community Studies. University of Georgia Extension Publications, 1914.
"Standards of Measurement for Race Development," Journal of Race Development, V (April
1915), 364-383.
"Some Studies in Negro Problems of the Southern States," Journal of Race Development,
VI (October 1915), 185-191.
"What the Universities Are Doing for Rural Education," High School Quarterly (January
1916) pp. 108-115.
"Introduction," in "Civic Co-operation in Community Building," Bdletin of the University
of Georgia, XVI (June 1916), 3-4.
"Negro Home and Health Conditions," Southern Workman (December 1916), pp. 691-697.
"German Education and the Great War," Bulletin of the Board of Education of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South (November 1919).
"University Cooperation in Public Welfare," Bulletin of the North Carolina State Department
of Charities and Public Welfare, III (July-September 1920), 38-43.
"Constructive Ventures in Government: A Manual of Discussion and Study of Woman's
HOWARD W. ODUM 211
New Place in the Newer Ideals of Citizenship," University of North Carolina Extension
Leaflet, IV (September 1920), No. 1. Pp. 95.
"Community and Government: A Manual of Discussion and Study of the Newer Ideals of
Citizenship," University of North Carolina Extension Leaflet, IV (January 1921), No.
5. Pp. 106.
"Health and Housing," pp. 41-44, Cooperation in Southern Communities: Suggested Activities
for County and City Interracial Communities, edited by T. J. Woofter, Jr. and Isaac
Fisher. Atlanta: Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 1921.
"Attainable Standards in Municipal Programs: A Partial Report of the First Regional Conference
of Town and County Administration Held at Chapel Hill, September 19, 20,
21, 1921" (ed.), University of North Carolina Extension Bulletin, I (December 1921), No.
7. Pp. 130.
"A University Plan," Journal of Social Forces I (November 1922), 49.
"The Journal of Social Forces," Journal of Social Forces, I (November 1922), 56-61.
"Effective Democracy," Journal of Social Forces, I (January 1923), 178-183.
"Public Welfare in the United States" (ed.), Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, CV (January 1923). Pp. 282.
"Newer Ideals of Public Welfare," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, CV (January 1923), 1-6.
"Attainable Standards for State Departments of Public Welfare," Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, CV (January 1923), 137-143.
"Positions for Trained Social Workers in the Field of Public Welfare," Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, CV (January 1923), 182-184.
"Fundamental Principles Underlying Inter-racial Co-operation," Journal of Social Forces, I
(March 1923), 282-285.
"Democracy and Life," Journal of Social Forces, I (March 1923), 315-320.
"Reading, Writing, and Leadership," Journal of Social Forces, I (March 1923), 321-335.
"Comprehensive Social Work," Journal of Social Forces, I (May 1923), 471-476.
"The Search After Values," Journal of Social Forces, I (May 1923), 342-343; (September 1923),
506-507.
"The Transfer of Leadership," Journal of Social Forces, I (September 1923), 616-620.
"An Attainable Rural Standard," Journal of Social Forces, II (November 1923), 111-114.
"Public Welfare and Rural Adequacy," The Rural Home (Proceedings of the Sixth National
Country Life Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, 1923) pp. 96-103.
"The Search After Values," Journal of Social Forces, II (November 1923), 3-4; (January
1924), 142-143; (March 1924), 318-319; (May 1924), 478-479; (September 1924),
638-641.
"Dependable Theory and Social Change," Journal of Social Forces, II (January 1924), 282-
286.
"Toward a More Articulate South," Emory Wheel (March 20, 1924), pp. 1, 2, 7.
"A More Articulate South," Journal of Social Forces, II (September 1924), 730-735.
"The Search After Values," Journal of Social Forces, III (November 1924), 2-5; (January
1925), 200-203; (March 1925), 400-402.
"G. Stanley Hall: Pioneer in Scientific Social Exploration," Journal of Social Forces, III
(November 1924), 139-146.
"The New Public Welfare," Proceedings of the Ohio State Conference of Social Work, 1924.
"Masters of Work," Journal of Social Forces, III (January 1925), 337-339.
"Public Welfare and the Community, as It Relates to the North Carolina Plan of Public
Welfare: A Statement for the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs," University
of North Carolina Extension Bulletin, IV (February 1925), No. 10. Pp. 53.
"University Research and Training in Social Science," Journal of Social Forces, III (March
1925), 518-524.
"A Southern Promise," Journal of Social Forces, III (May 1925), 739-746.
"The Duel to the Death," Social Forces, IV (September 1925), 189-194.
"The Discovery of the People," Social Forces, IV (December 1925), 414-417.
Sociology and Social Problems. Chicago: American Library Association, 1925. Pp. 32.
"Public Welfare and Democracy," Proceedings of the American Country Life Association,
1925, pp. 117-122.
212 SOCIAL FORCES
"The New Negro," Modern Quarterly, III (February-April 1926), 127-128.
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," Country Gentleman, XCI (March 1926), 18-19, 49-50.
"Down That Lonesome Road," Country Gentleman, XCI (May 1926), 18-19, 79.
"The Promise of the Social Sciences," Social Forces, V (September 1926), pp. i-iv.
"Frontiers of Social Work," Social Forces, V (December 1926), 268-269.
"Governmental Responsibility for Social Work," Proceedings of the Maryland State Conference,
1925-1926.
"Ideals of Government," Chap. XIX, pp. 240-243 in "Christianity and Modern Thought,"
Vol. IV, An Outline of Christianity: the Story of Our Civilization. 5 vols. New York: Bethlehem
Publishers, Inc., 1926.
"Changing Requirements for the Doctor's Degree," Social Forces, V (June 1927), 600-602.
"The Science of Society," Social Forces, VI (September 1927), p. ii.
"Introduction," pp. ix-x in Citizens' Reference Book: A Textbook for Adult Beginners in
Community Schools, Vol. 2, by Elizabeth Morriss. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1927.
"Increasing the Circulation of Social Forces," Social Forces, VI (March 1928), pp. ii.
"The Search After Values," Social Forces, VI (June 1928), p. ii.
"How New Is the South in Social Work," Survey, LX (June 15, 1928), 329-330.
"Editor's Introductory Note," pp. v-vii in American Marriage and Family Relationships,
by Ernest R. Groves and William F. Ogburn. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
1928.
"Foreword," pp. 3-4 in A Decade of Negro Self-Expression, compiled by Alain Locke.
Charlottesville, Virginia: The John F. Slater Fund, 1928. Occasional Papers No. 26.
"A New Keynote and Emphasis in Social Theory," American Social Science Notes. New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1928. Pp. 7.
"Social Resources and Social Waste in the South," Georgia Educational Association, 1928.
"Regional Social Research," Vassar College (January 1929).
"The 'Scientific-Human' in Social Research," Social Forces, VII (March 1929), 350-362.
"Regional Portraiture," Saturday Review of Literature, VI (July 27, 1929), 1-2.
"Black Ulysses Goes to War," American Mercury, XVII (August 1929), 385-400.
"Black Ulysses in Camp," American Mercury, XVIII (September 1929), 47-59.
"The Sociological Viewpoint in Rural Social Research"; "The Sociological Viewpoint in Rural
Social Organization," Ohio State University (October 8, 1929).
"Folk and Regional Conflict as a Field of Sociological Study," Publications of the American
Sociological Society, XXV (May 1931), 1-17.
"The Sociological Viewpoint on Education and Racial Adjustment," Education and Racial
Adjustment: Report of the Peabody Conference on Dual Education in the South (November
1931), pp. 56-59.
"Lynchings, Fears, and Folkways," Nation, CXXXIII (December 30, 1931), 719-720.
"Notes on the Study of Regional and Folk Society," Social Forces, X (December 1931),
164-175.
"Trends in Public Welfare," Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work, Minneapolis,
1931, pp. 441-450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932.
"The Epic of Brown America," Yale Review, XXI (Winter 1932), 419-421.
"Sociology and the Study of the Modern World," Roads to Knowledge, edited by William A
Neilson. New York: W. W. Norton, 1932. Pp. 326-349.
"New Frontiers of Leadership in Public Affairs," Bulletin of Emory University, IX (March
1933), 52-71.
"Notes on Recent Trends in the Application of the Social Sciences," Social Forces, XI (May
1933), 477488.
"New Frontiers of American Life," Southwest Review, XVIII (Summer 1933), 418-429.
"Public Welfare Activities," Recent Social Trends in the United States, pp. 1224-1273. New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1933.
"The New Setting for English Teaching: I. Industrial-Economic Life," English Journal,
XXII (November 1933), 711-719.
"The New Setting for English Teaching: II. Social Changes," English Journal, XXIII (January
1934), 19-30.
HOWARD W. ODUM 213
"Regionalism vs. Sectionalism in the South's Place in the National Economy," Social Forces,
XII (March 1934), 338-354.
"An Approach to Race Adjustment," Woman's Press, XXVIII (April 1934), 196-197.
"Social Planning and the New Deal," News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), May 20,
1934.
"Where the Sociologist and Social Worker Begin," Social Forces, XII (May 1934), 465-472.
"A New Deal Popular Bookshelf: How Much Social Realism, How Much Social Science,
How Much Grinding Grist?" Social Forces, XII (May 1934), 601-606.
"The Case for Regional-National Social Planning," Social Forces, XIII (October 1934), 6-23.
"A Sociological Approach to National Social Planning: A Syllabus," Sociology and Social
Research, XIX (March-April 1935), 303-313.
"Orderly Transitional Democracy," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, CLXXX (July 1945), 31-39.
"Promise and Prospect of the South: A Test of American Regionalism," Proceedings of the
Eighth Annual Session of the Southern Political Science Association, December 26, 1935,
pp. 8-18.
"A Tragedy of Race Conflict," Yale Review, XXV (1935), 214-216.
The Regional Approach to National Social Planning: With Special Reference to a More Abundant
South and Its Continuing Reintegration in the National Economy. New York: The
Foreign Policy Association; and Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935.
Pp. 31.
"Social and Economic Trends as Affecting the Education of Tomorrow," Educational Responsibilities
of Today and Tomorrow, pp. 36-47. Philadelphia: Twenty-Second Annual
Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, 1935.
"Cotton and Diversification," Problems of the Cotton Economy, Section III (Proceedings of
the Southern Social Science Research Conference, New Orleans, March 8, 1935), pp.
50-71. Dallas, Texas: Arnold Foundation, 1936.
"Testing Grounds for Social Planning. The Promise of the South, a Test of American Regionalism,"
Plan Age, II (February 1936), 1-26.
"Realistic Premises for Regional Planning Objectives," Plan Age, II (March 1936), 7-21.
"Despite Potentialities the South Is an Area of Scarcity Instead of a Land of Abundance,"
South Today (published in 12 Southern newspapers through the Southern Newspaper
Syndicate, August 1936).
"Planning for the State's Social Welfare," Public Welfare News Letter, No. 14 (Raleigh, North
Carolina, October 1936), pp. 1-6 (mimeographed).
"Six Americas in Search of a Faith," Independent Woman, XV (October 1936), 309, 334-336.
"The Way of a Wealthy Nation in the Modern World," Proceedings, Institute of Public
Affairs, University of Alabama, 1936.
"The Southern People: Their Background, Their Resources, and Their Culture," Proceedings,
Institute of Public Affairs, University of Alabama, 1936.
"Alabama's Place in the South," Proceedings, Institute of Public Affairs, University of Alabama,
1936.
"Toward Regional Social Planning," Proceedings, Institute of Public Affairs, University of
Alabama, 1936.
"Social Security and Public Welfare in the '30's," Minutes and Materials, Second Annual
Institute, North Carolina State Employment Service and National Reemployment Service,
pp. 61-64. Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Labor, 1936 (mimeographed).
"The Implications of Radio as a Social and Educational Phenomenon," Educational Broadcasting
1936: Proceedings of the First National Conference on Educational Broadcasting,
Washington, D. C., December 10-12, 1936, edited by C. S. Marsh. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1937. Also printed in Educational Record, XVIII (January 1937), 24-27.
"The Errors of Sociology," Social Forces, XV (March 1937), 327-342.
"These Southern Regions," Alabama School Journal, LIV (May 1937), No. 9, p. 12.
"From Sections to Regions," Saturday Review of Literature, XVI (June 12, 1937), 5.
"Notes on the Technicways in Contemporary Society," American Sociological Review, II
(June 1937), 336-346.
"A New Realism of the People," Education and Human Relations (Read before the Second
214 SOCIAL FORCES
Southern Area Institute of Human Relations, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, July 1, 1937,
Report of the Institute).
"Industrial Relations and the Social and Economic Life of the South," New Factors in Industrial
Relations, pp. 67-74 (Summary of the 18th Annual Industrial Conference, Blue
Ridge, North Carolina, National Council of the Young Men's Christian Association,
July 15-17, 1937).
"The Human Aspects of Chemurgy," Farm. Chemurgic Journal, I (September 17, 1937), 60-71.
"Regional Planning," pp. 35-44 in Library Trends, edited by L. R. Wilson. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1937.
Security and Welfare: Which Way is Forward for North Carolina? Marking a Twenty-fifth
Anniversary (assisted by Harriet L. Herring and Don Becker). Raleigh: North Carolina
Conference for Social Service, 1937. Pp. 24.
"American Regionalism: The Implications and Meanings of Regionalism," Progressive Education,
XV (1938), 229-239.
"New Sources of Vitality for the People," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, XIV
(June-July 1938), 417-423.
"The Promise of Graduate and Research Work in the South," Inauguration and Symposium
at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, pp. 99-108. Nashville: Vanderbilt University,
1938.
"What about the Federal Equalization Fund for Education?" Southern Newspaper Syndicate,
1938.
'America: States and Regions," Social Forces, XVI (May 1938), 584-586.
"The State of Sociology in the United States and Its Prospect in the South," Social Forces,
XVII (October 1938), 8-14.
Problems of the South: A University of Chicago Round Table Broadcast, September 4, 1938 (with
Earl S. Johnson and William H. Spencer). Chicago: University of Chicago Round Table,
1938. Pp. 12.
"What Is the Answer?" Carolina Magazine, LXVIII (February 1939), 5-8.
"The Meaning and Significance of Democracy," Eleusis of Chi Omega, XLI (May 1939),
210-213.
"The South as Testing Ground for the Regional Approach to Public Health," Proceedings of
the Annual Congress on Medical Education and Licensure, pp. 14-17. Chicago: American
Medical Association, 1939. Also in Journal of the American Medical Association (Spring
1939).
"Of a Closer Cooperation between the Physical Sciences and the Social Sciences," Harvard
Alumni Bulletin, XLI (July 7, 1939), 1124-1128.
"TheP ositiono f the Negroi n the AmericanS ocialO rdero f 1950,"J ournalo f NegroE ducation
VIII (July 1939), 587-594.
"Of New Social Frontiers in Contemporary Society," Frontiers of Democracy, VI (October
1939), 15-17.
"Regional Development and Governmental Policy," Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, CCVI (November 1939), 133-141.
"On the Southern Frontier," Southern Frontier, I (January 1940), 1, 4.
"Is the South the Nation's Number One Economic Problem?" Scholastic, XXXVI (March 25,
1940), 8-9, 16.
"Education in the Secondary Schools of the South," Southern Association Quarterly, IV
(August 1940), 523-529.
"Three-fold Task Awaits South's Development," Southern Frontier, I (October 1940), 1, 4.
"Fundamentals of Americanism," High School Journal, XXIII (November 1940), 297-298.
"Foreword," pp. vii-xi in Southern Industry and Regional Development, by Harriet L. Herring.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940.
"Towards the South at Its Best," Mississippian (Spring 1941).
"Introduction," pp. 9-10 in Get More Out of Life: How Troubled People Can Find Help, by
Catherine Groves. New York: Association Press, 1941.
"The Role of Regionalism and the Regional Council in National Planning," National Conference
on Planning, 1941, pp. 316-326. Chicago: American Society of Planning Officials,
1941.
HOWARD W. ODUM 215
"Implications of the Emergency for Schools," News Letter, Southern Association Study in
Secondary Schools and Colleges (February 1942), pp. 1-2 (mimeographed).
"Regionalism-A Technique for Large-Scale Social Planning and Democratic Checks,"
New Leader (February 28, 1942), pp. 3, 6.
"Three-fold Task Awaits South's Development," The Need to Eat Is Not Racial, pp. 10-11.
Atlanta: Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Inc., May 1942.
"A Sociological Approach to the Study and Practice of American Regionalism: A Factorial
Syllabus," Social Forces, XX (May 1942), 425-436.
"The Way of the South: A Regional Approach to the Promise of American Life," Christendom,
VII (Summer 1942), 377-389.
"Patterns of Regionalism in the Deep South," Saturday Review of Literature, XXV (September
19, 1942), 5-7.
"The South at Its Best," Baptist Student, XXII (October 1942), 3-5.
"The University, Scholarship and the People," College of Education Record (University of
Washington, Seattle), IX (November 1942), 1-9.
"The Glory that Was, and the Southern Grandeur that Was Not," Saturday Review of Literature,
XXVI (January 23, 1943), 9-10, 35-36.
"The Upper Old South: An Editorial" (with Virginius Dabney), Saturday Review of Literature,
XXVI (January 23, 1943), 3.
"Sociology in the Contemporary World of Today and Tomorrow," Social Forces, XXI (May
1943), 390-396.
"Introduction to Race Tensions," University of Chicago Round Table, No. 276 (July 4, 1943),
pp. 1-2.
"Toward a New Era in Race Relations," Pulse, I (November 1943).
"Crisis in the Making," Crisis, L (December 1943), 360-362, 377-378.
"The American Heritage" (Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Educational Conference
and the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools, University of Kentucky), Bulletin of the Bureau of School Service, XVI (December
1943), 51-59.
"Towards a More Dynamic Regional National Planning," Planning, 1943 (Proceedings of the
Annual Meeting, American Society of Planning Officials), pp. 66-71.
The North Carolina Jersey Book. Swannanoa: North Carolina Jersey Cattle Club, 1943-
1944. Pp. 26.
"A New Era in Race Relations," Pulse, I (January 1944), 6-8.
"The Legend of the Eleanor Clubs," Negro Digest, II (February 1944), 17-22.
"Study of War: Patrick Geddes' Heritage to 'The Making of the Future,"' Social Forces,
XXII (March 1944), 275-281.
"Problem and Methodology in an American Dilemma," Critique of An American Dilemma,
The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (2 vols.), by Gunnar Myrdal, Social Forces,
XXIII (October 1944), 94-98.
"Americans All," Negro Digest, III (November 1944), 44.
"The Challenge of Public Welfare," Public Welfare News, VII (Raleigh, North Carolina,
December 1944), 24-27.
"Towards the Future," Southern Frontier, V (December 1944), 1, 3-4.
"Folk," "Folk-Regional Society," "Folk Society," "The Region," "Regional Planning,"
"Regionalism," "Technicways," Dictionary of Sociology, edited by Henry Pratt Fairchild.
New York: Philosophical Library, 1944.
"The Sociologist Looks at Resource Education," Nation's Schools, XXXV (February 1945),
50-51.
"From Community Studies to Regionalism," Social Forces, XXIII (March 1945), 245-258.
"The Way of the South," Social Forces, XXIII (March 1945), 258-268.
"The Regional Quality and Balance of America," Social Forces, XXIII (March 1945), 269-285.
"The Way of the South," Southern Frontier, VI (August 1945), 1.
"The Assumptions of Regional Balance," World Economics, III (October-December 1945),
57-66.
"In Interracial Tensions," chap. XVIII, Making the Gospel Effective, edited by William K.
Anderson, pp. 170-180. Nashville: Commission on Ministerial Training, the Methodist
Church, 1945.
216 SOCIAL FORCES
"The South at Its Best, the South at Work: Part I," chap. 4; "The South at Its Best, the
South at Work: Part II," chap. 5; "Administrative Levels of Social Planning Agencies
in American Democracy," chap. 9; Marshaling Florida's Resources, edited by Charles
T. Thrift, pp. 30-37, 38-45, 65-68. Lakeland: Florida Southern College Press, 1945.
"The Social Sciences," A State University Surveys the Humanities, edited by L. C. McKinney,
pp. 108-117. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1945 (A publication commemorating
the Sesqui-Centennial of the University of North Carolina).
"Permanent Institutes" (with Katharine Jocher), The Graduate School Research and Publications,
edited by Edgar W. Knight and Agatha Boyd Adams, pp. 155-172. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1945 (A publication commemorating the Sesqui-
Centennial of the University of North Carolina).
"Ernest R. Groves and His Work," Social Forces, XXV (December 1946), 197-206.
"Towards Tomorrow," Understanding Marriage and the Family: A Symposium in Honor of
Ernest R. Groves, edited by Ray V. Sowers and John W. Mullen. pp. xv-xix. Vol II of the
American Family Magazine Book Foundation. Chicago: Eugene Hugh Publishers, 1946.
"Social Morale in an Age of Science," Southwest Review (Winter 1947), Pp. 7.
"Tasks for Sociology," Social Forces, XXVI (March 1948), 373-375.
"On Definition and Measurement," Social Forces, XXVI (May 1948), 497-498.
"Social Change in the South," Journal of Politics, X (May 1948), 242-258; reprinted in The
Southern Political Scene, 1938-1948, edited by Taylor Cole and John H. Hallowell.
Gainesville, Florida: Kallman Publishing Co., 1948.
"The Unchanging South," Torch, XXI (October 1948), 10-11, 20.
"Tribute to Dr. Roy M. Brown upon His Retirement from the Faculty of the University of
North Carolina," Public Welfare News (Raleigh, N. C.), XI (December 1948), 1-2, 12.
"F. H. Giddings," "E. A. Ross," "Lester F. Ward," Collier's Encyclopedia. New York: Crowell-
Collier Publishing Co., 1948.
"This Is Worth Our Best," The Southern Packet, V (January 1949), 1-7.
"Linebreeding for Perfection," Jersey Bulletin (May 10, 1949), pp. 719, 766-788.
"The American Blend: Regional Diversity and National Unity," Saturday Review of Literature,
XXXII (August 6, 1949), 92-96, 169-170.
"Edwin H. Sutherland, 1883-1950," Social Forces, XXIX (March 1951), 348-349.
"Laboratories for Peace," Saturday Review of Literature, XXXIV (May 12, 1951), 9-10.
"Toward the Dynamic Study of Jewish Culture," Social Forces, XXIX (May 1951), 450-452.
"Luther Lee Bernard, 1881-1951" Social Forces, XXIX (May 1951), 480-481.
"Edward Alsworth Ross, 1866-1951" Social Forces, XXX (October 1951), 126-127.
"The Promise of Regionalism," chap. 15, Regionalism in America, edited by Merrill Jensen,
pp. 395-425. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1951.
"The Ph.D. Degree and the Doctor's Dissertation in Sociology and Anthropology," Social
Forces, XXX (March 1952), 369-372.
"The Social Scientist Looks at Public Health," Proceedings of the First Institute of Public
Health, Veterans Administration Hospital, Tuskegee, Alabama, March 16-19, 1952, pp.
137-154.
"For a Richer and Better Balanced Resource Development: Summary and Interpretation of
Findings," Conservation and Development in North Carolina, II, pp. 356-371. Raleigh:
Conservation Congress, November 17-19, 1952 (mimeographed).
"Folk Sociology as a Subject Field for the Historical Study of Total Human Society and the
Empirical Study of Group Behavior," Social Forces, XXXI (March 1953), 192-223.
Symbol and Reality of Consolidation. Acceptance of the Fifth Annual 0. Max Gardner Award,
Anniversary Dinner, Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, March 22,
1953. Asheville: The Stephens Press, 1953. Pp. 7.
A Clear Vision for North Carolina. An Address Delivered at the 40th Annual Meeting of the
North Carolina Conference for Social Service, Asheville, May 5, 1953. Raleigh: North
Carolina Conference for Social Service, 1953. Pp. 6.
"On the Definition of Literature," Shenandoah, V (Winter 1953), 13-21.
"On Southern Literature and Southern Culture," Southern Renascence: The Literature of the
Modern South, edited by Louis D. Rubin, Jr., and Robert D. Jacobs, pp. 84-100. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Press, 1953. Also printed in The Hopkins Review (Winter 1953),
pp. 60-76.
HOWARD W. ODUM 217
"Ellsworth Faris, 1874-1953," Social Forces, XXXIII (October 1954), 101-103.
"On Diagnosis and Direction in Certain National and Southern Issues in the United States,"
Journal of Social Issues, X (1954), 4-12.
"An Approach to Diagnosis and Direction of the Problem of Negro Segregation in the Public
Schools of the South," Journal of Public Law, III (1954), 8-37.
"Expanding Higher Education: Which Way Is Forward in the Social Sciences?" Educational
Record, XXXVI (January 1955), 49-55.
General Editor
Social Forces. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company, 1922-1954.
North Carolina Social Study Series. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1924-
1935.
American Social Science Series. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1925-1933.
This bibliography is not definitive. Book titles are complete, but copies of some of Dr.
Odum's earlier publications-bulletins, pamphlets, articles-are at present not available.
Copies not at hand are also responsible for incomplete listings of some references. In addition,
book reviews, of which Dr. Odum contributed many, especially during his earlier professional
life, are not included, but critiques are.
The chronological arrangement has been followed in order to show development in Dr.
Odum's thinking over the years. This, it seems to us, places his work in clearer perspective
than would an attempt to classify his writing under several fields. Accordingly, we have used
but two categories: (1) Books and Monographs; (2) Articles, Brochures, Chapters, Pamphlets,
each arranged in chronological sequence.
Betty Rankin and Marjorie Tallant have been helpful in checking and compiling this
bibliography.