Harriet Martineau is considered to be the first female sociologist. Harriet's education was largely at home through self study. University study was barred to women at the time, but Harriet maintained a regime of intense, self directed investigation throughout her life. When her family's wealth declined, she was able to earn money through writing essays, tracts, reviews, novels, journal articles, travelogues, biographies, how-to manuals, newspaper columns, histories, children's stories and sociologically informed non-fiction. She lived in London during a time when the social circles were quite active. The circle included: Charles Babbage, Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Thomas Malthaus, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Darwin. Her trip to America resulted in two books based on empirical research, 'Society in America' (1837) and 'Retrospect of Western Travel' (1838). She examined social class, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, women's status, criminology, and interrelations between institutions and individuals before Marx, Engels or Weber
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