A Stranger at the Gate
Reflections on the Chicago School of Sociology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2344083 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nels Anderson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 396-406 |
| Publication date | 1983-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Life (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0098-3039 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0098303983011004002 |
| OpenAlex | W2084484916 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
hen I entered Brigham Young University in 1915, I was interested in law and my goal was to obtain a college degree by the shortest route. Looking over the list of courses I might take, I saw “Sociology”– a catchy title, I thought; it should be easy. Someone suggested that I take it in my second term, which I did, but I saw no need of it in law, so most of what I had learned slipped away once I had passed the course. In my third year I took a course in social problems, which knowledge it also seemed I did not need. That was the year I enlisted in the army, and the suspension of my studies for nearly two years reinforced my forgetting. I returned to Brigham Young University shortly after the war. Some weeks before I graduated, in 1920, my professor of economics and sociology, John C. Swenson, suggested that I consider putting aside my idea of becoming a lawyer and turn instead to sociology, a discipline with a future (he said). I was flattered by his interest in me, but I could not accept his advice. Yet, to use his words, I could not put aside his suggestion. Unwittingly, I was backing away from the law. Three months later, having accepted Swenson’s advice, I found myself walking the streets of Chicago, uncertain about what to do next. It was Swenson’s idea that I get my sociology at the University of Chicago because “they work with new ideas.” But I was more preoccupied with worries than with ideas. For one thing, I was almost penniless. When I arrived in Chicago
American History and Culture · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1987 - 1991 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |