Born of Huguenot family in Norwich, Martineau earned her own financial independence by journalism and writing books, in particular using fiction to illustrate the new science of political economy. These writings gave her the independence to travel, and she used a visit to America to produce Society in America (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel (1838). These empirical studies came at the same time as her foundational treatise on sociological data collection, How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838). This book articulated the principles and methods of empirical social research, covering such matters as social class, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, and women’s status. Having lost her Unitarian religion, in 1851 she translated Comte’s Cours de philosophie positive into English.