Arguing that the beginnings of the social sciences extend much further back than is generally realized, Lynn McDonald traces the methodological foundations, research techniques, and basic concepts of the social sciences from their earliest origins to the beginning of this century. This thorough investigation enables her to provide empirical refutation of recent radical, feminist, and environmentalist critiques that assert that the social sciences inevitably support the power relations of the status quo, are antithetical to the interests of women, and are inherently linked to the domination and destruction of nature.