The Beginnings of Sociology
in the United States
From Western Europe, sociology spread in the
1890s to the United States, where it thrived as a
result of the intellectual climate and the rapid rate
of social change. The first departments of sociology
in the United States were located at the University of
Chicago and at Atlanta University, then an African
American school.
The Chicago School The first department of
sociology in the United States was established at
the University of Chicago, where the faculty was
instrumental in starting the American Sociological
Society (now known as the American Sociological
Association). Robert E. Park (1864–1944), a member
of the Chicago faculty, asserted that urbanization
has a disintegrating influence on social life by
producing an increase in the crime rate and in racial