Robert E. Park 
Robert E. Park 
Park was a gruff man, dramatically different in self presentationfrom any of his colleagues. According to his loyal and professionallysuccessful students, this brusqueness and offensiveness hid a"truly affectionate man." [83] Park was a strong influenceon his students, directing their work and shaping their ideas.He attained a major role in the development of Chicago Sociologyfrom 1920 until World War II. Extremely egotistical, his oneautobiographical statement reads as if he founded sociology alonewith few collegial influences on his social thought or development.[84] Like Vincent, he was born in 1864 (a year after Thomas andMead). Throughout his childhood, he lived in various cities andtowns in the Midwest. From a poorer background than his colleagues,Park had a checkered career as an adult. While studying at theUniversity of Michigan, he enrolled in several of Dewey's courses.[85] After graduating from there in 1887, he worked as a muckrakingnewspaper reporter for over a decade. [86] Loving urban lifeand its vitality, Park roamed the streets looking for human-intereststories and excitement. From 1899 until 1905, like his sociologicalcolleagues, Park traveled to Germany to study where he "readdeeply into the work of the founders of sociology." [87] (Park was particularly fascinated with the work of Simmel whowas later introduced into American sociology by Small. [88]
After Park worked as an assistant in philosophy at Harvard from1903 until 1905, [89] he left to become the secretary and companionof Booker T. Washington. In this capacity, he met W.I. Thomaswho recruited him to a marginal position at the University ofChicago in 1913. Park was hired to teach one course in one academicquarter, a position that he filled from 1913 until Thomas' dismissalin 1918. It was only in 1919 that Park was given a full-time appointment"instead of his temporary summer quarter tenure which hadbeen renewed from year to year." [90] In 1923, Park wasfinally appointed a full professor.
This long period of apprenticeship must have been a bitter pillfor Park to swallow. One indication of his estrangement from Small,Henderson, and Zeublin is his total disregard for their worksin his writings and acknowledgements. Park formally recognizedonly Thomas as a "Chicago" influence on his sociologicalthought.
With a virulent ideology against social reform and "do-gooders,"Park was paradoxically deeply involved with reform movements throughouthis life. With Burgess he coauthored Introduction to the Scienceof Society in 1921, thereby supplanting the 1894 introductorytext written by Small and Vincent. The Park and Burgess text becamea famous and influential book, defining the field of sociologyfor beginning students over the next two decades. Similarly, theirwork on urban ecology became known as the basis for Chicago Sociologyand its related social policy studies. [91]
Park developed a number of strong relationships with his studentswhose books were published in a thirty-volume series of studiescovering numerous urban districts, ethnic groups, and occupations.[92] Dismissed until recently as an effective teacher but relativelyinsignificant scholar, his role in Chicago Sociology is now beingreexamined by several scholars. [93] In this book, he is seenas a major factor in obscuring the early history and influenceof Chicago sociologists.
83. Faris, Chicago Sociology, p. 30.
84. Robert E. Park, "An Autobiographical Note," in Raceand Culture (New York: Free Press). pp. v-xiv.
85. Fred Matthews, Quest for an American Sociology (Montreal:McGill-Queen's University Press, 1977), p. 5. Dewey's influenceon Park was quite extensive, see esp. pp. 20-30.
86. Ibid. pp. 8-30.
87. Ibid. p. 68.
88. See Small's translations of Simmel, "The Sociology ofSecrecy and Secret Societies," American Journalof Sociology 11 (January 1906):441 -98.
89. Matthews, Quest for an American Sociology, p. 85.
90. Ibid, p. 86.
91. Faris, Chicago Sociology, pp. 37-133
92. For a list of the books see Winifred Rauschenbush, RobertE. Park (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1979), pp.196-97.
93. Rauschenbush and Matthews are outstanding examples of thisrenewed interest. See also Ralph H. Turner's anthology of Park'swriting, Robert E. Park: On Social Control and Collective Behavior (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967).
From Mary Jo Deegan, Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School, 1892-1918.New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Books, 1986, pp. 22-24.
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