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The task of this paper is to both describe and explain the evolving relations between sociology and economics in the US. The first generation of American sociology was immersed in economic questions, and its establishment in the university system was largely sponsored by economics. After the formation of the American Sociological Society, relations came to be more characterized by professionally autonomous collaboration. Joint professional gatherings of economists and sociologists - including regular joint presidential addresses - were the norm until the early 1940s. The era of collaboration ended in disciplinarily rivalry between sociologists and institutional economists, with the sociologists (notably Talcott Parsons) claiming the institutions of capitalism as the proper subject matter of sociology. This conflict fed into the ultimate failure of institutional economics and encouraged the retreat of the discipline into the technical study of prices. At the same time, sociologists never went on to seriously occupy the field of economic institutions; rather, it became a vacant lot between the disciplines, abandoned in the post-war disengagement of economics and sociology.

Karl Marx has long been perceived as one of the individuals who helped to create and develop the field we now call sociology. Many studies have attempted to show his prevalence over time, but have done so deficiently. The current study is a qualitative content analysis of the manuscripts written by William G. Sumner, Lester F. Ward, Franklin H. Giddings, Albion W. Small, Charles H. Cooley and Edward A. Ross. These individuals are generally considered to be the founders of American academic sociology. Their writings can tell a great deal about the development of Marxian sociology in the United States. The present study supports the theory that those founders working at universities in the Midwest were more likely to discuss Marx than the founders from the East Coast because those in the Midwest were at institutions which were more progressive. The project is based on a thorough analysis of the manuscripts written by the six founders in the time frame of 1883-1915 (the first era of American academic sociology). As shown in the study, Karl Marx was not entirely ignored by the founders, but many other writers were more influential. Many discussions about Karl Marx were based upon the manuscripts written by he and Engels, The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. The founders often addressed Marx's concepts which related to his discussions of class, surplus value, capital, capitalism, historical materialism, class consciousness, and property. / Master of Science