The City

by Robert Ezra Park, Ernest W. Burgess

First published in 1925, The City is a trailblazing text in the fields of urban history, urban sociology, and urban studies. Its innovative combination of ethnographic observation and social science theory epitomized the Chicago School of Sociology. Robert E. Park, Ernest W. Burgess, and their collaborators documented the interplay between individuals and larger social structures and institutions, seeking patterns within the city’s riot of people, events, and influences. As sociologist Robert J. Sampson notes in his new foreword, though much has changed since The City was first published, we can still benefit from its charge to explain where and why social and racial groups live as they do.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Urban Studies, Cities

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1967

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great classic for any sociologist. while some of the notions seem sexist, conservative, and downright racist, it illustrates just how far we've come regarding urban sociology... and how far we still have to go.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

“in spite of all the progress represented in the long march from the amoeba to man, it is still true that the human creature is a good deal of a vegetable.” <3