The Chicago School A Liberal Critique of Capitalism Dennis Smith [Text produced for teaching purposes. Pagination from original is indicated in the text in bold on left of page. In the list of contents below the equivalent page numbers within this file for the chapters and sections are indicated in the brackets,] M macmillan education © DENNIS SMITH 1988 Preface ix [3] 1 The Chicago Tradition and its Critics 1 (4) A beginner's guide 1 (4) The men and the themes 4 [5] The argument 7 [7] A vigorous tradition 9 [8] The radical critique 14 [10] 1126 and 1929 21 [14] 2 Dimensions of Liberalism 29 [18] The wicked city 29 [18] New discipline, new department, new city 31 [19] To Germany 34 [21] Back to America 38 [23] Capitalism and culture 44 [26] Simmel and Veblen 47 [28] 3 Making America Work 57 [33] 1 Pragmatism 59 [34] Veblen and Dewey 65 [37] Strategies for change 71 [40] 4 Albion Small 75 [42] Preach! preach! preach! 75 [42] A laboratory guide 79 [44] Against individualism 85 [47] 5 W. I. Thomas 92 [51] From coercion to cooperation 92 [51] Thomas and Small 97 [54] The Polish Peasant 102 [56] The quest for control 105 [58] Aftermath 108 [59] 6 Robert Park 111 [61] Sociology and the real world 111 [61] The big picture 115 [63] Intellectual influences 120 [65] Faces, races, places 123 [67] The comforts of paradox 127 [69] The press and the public mind 129 [70] Questions, not answers 131 [71] 7 From Park to Parsons 134 [72] The rebellion against Chicago 134 [72] From ecology to functionalism 136 [73] Talcott Parsons and Chicago 140 [75] Parting of the ways 144 [78] The tide from Europe 147 [79] Freud and Marx 149 [80] 8 Louis Wirth 153 [82] First generation, second generation 153 [82] The Ghetto 154 [82] The promise of America 156 [83] Objectivity and the intellectual 158 [84] From pessimism to optimism 161 [86] 9 William Ogburn 167 [74] More measurement 167 [74] Social trends and democracy 169 [74] Knowledge and values 170 [75] Freedom and organization 173 [76] Science and social change 175 [77] Happiness 180 [80] 10 Morris Janowitz 184 [98] The persuaders 184 [98] Back to Germany 185 [99] The modern military 188 [100] Macrosociology 191 [102] Prejudice and control 193 [103] Life at the local level 197 [105] Enlightenment and social control 201 [107] Beyond selfishness 204 [109] 2 11 Is Our Republic to Fail? 211 [112] A static agenda 211 [112] Unfinished business 213 [113] Janowitz and Habermas 214 [114] Bibliography 221 [117] [original page numbers are in bold within the text, located at the point where the page begins] ix Preface The front cover of this book depicts Liberty with her torch. In the mid-1880s she was delivered by her European creators to the American Ambassador in Paris. While this book was under way, the rusting statue was given a clean-up and general refurbishment followed by a magnificent firework display. These events celebrated the centenary of the original arrival in New York of Liberty in 1886. Apparently, it was a good deal easier to raise the cash for the fireworks than for the clean-up and refurbishment. Albion Small, the founding professor of Chicago University's sociology department, might well have found that rather symbolic. In fact, cleaning-up and refurbishing American liberty in its various expressions was a central objective of his life's work. He became very disillusioned. This book discusses the dilemmas and pitfalls confronting Small and a number of other Chicago sociologists who tried to construct a morally relevant and socially useful academic discipline. They took very seriously the goals and values lauded as 'the American Way 'and wrestled with their ambiguities. In doing so they often came up with conclusions which were unsympathetic to 'vested interests' and dedicated individualists. In other words, being a good American did not mean that you necessarily agreed with the person on the streetcar reading The Chicago Tribune - still less with those who owned the streetcar company and the newspaper house. Jack P. Diggins has recently speculated on the form that theAmerican declaration of Independence might take if it were rewritten by the sociologists: 'We hold these truths to be socially conditioned: that all men are created equal and mutually dependent. .. and so on (Diggins, 1979, p. 482). The point is that their x intellectual and moral location within the tradition of American liberalism provided the Chicago sociologists to be studied here with a critical perspective upon modern American society. However, it also imposed limits upon that critique. Some of these limits become more clearly visible when a comparative perspective is adopted. Like the statue, the rhetoric of 'liberty' was originally European. The fate of liberalism in Europe has been different. The European comparison, especially with Germany, has been stressed here in order to emphasise the extent to which the perceptions of men like Albion Small, W. I. Thomas, Robert Park, Louis Wirth, William Ogburn and Morris Janowitz have been shaped by the fact that they are Americans as well as the fact that they are sociologists. During a visit to Chicago in 1983, 1 met Morris Janowitz, Gerald Suttles and Albert Hunter. My conversations with them provided valuable background and insights. Needless to say, they are absolvedfrom any responsibility for the argument of this book. At Chicago I enjoyed the warm hospitality of Bert Hoselitz, his wife Gunhild and their daughter Ann. Their unstinting kindness was greatly appreciated. 3 1 Chapter I The Chicago Tradition and its Critics In this book I explore some aspects of the interplay between American sociology, American liberalism and American capitalism. The writings of members of the Chicago school provide a rich source of evidence upon which I draw selectively. Before outlining the argument and justifying the basis of my selection it will be useful to provide a potted history of Chicago sociology. A beginner's guide The new University of Chicago was founded in 1892. The enterprise was favoured by a strong tide of Baptist fervour and capitalist philanthropy. Albion Small, the first head of the sociology department, had trained as a Baptist minister. The research carried out by his colleagues and successors was to a considerable degree made possible by funds ultimately controlled by the Rockefeller family. Chicago sociologists were always aware of two potent influences. One consisted of the moral imperatives associated with being 'good Americans', a phrase that could be uttered without irony. The other was the power of private capital. However, that is to anticipate the argument. Two publications signalled the establishment of a distinctive styleand content for Chicago sociology. One was Robert Park's paper entitled ‘The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment' (1915). This paper set aside theprevailing tradition of abstract philosophising and sweeping generalisation in favour of sharp, researchable questions about institutions and processes that could be immediately observed and 2 investigated. Park did not pontificate. Instead, he puzzled out loud.The other breakthrough was The Polish Peasant in Europe and America by W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki. This was a potent mixture of analytical description, theoretical speculation and – most startling of all - empirical evidence consisting of hundreds of pages of direct quotations from newspapers, social-work agencies, immigrant societies and private letters. Taken together, the two works just described make up a kind of 'declaration of independence'. Social scientists were shown how to work in a new way, one which allowed them to use their intelligence and senses systematically and with self-confidence in a process of discovery. In more optimistic moments, it must have seemed as if anew urban frontier was being opened up by academic pioneers. Although it was new to the social sciences, this approach drew upon a powerful American myth, partly grounded in historical experience. For well over a decade after the end of the First World War Chicago sociology was, in effect, American sociology. Under the astute administrative guidance of Ernest Burgess and with funds drawn from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial and similar bodies American social life in Chicago and beyond was mapped, measured, examined and experienced. The energies of scores of graduate researchers were availabl e. Some idea of the range of topics covered is conveyed by the list of doctoral and master's dissertations in the period (given in Faris, 1967, pp. 135-50). They include investigations of: immigrant groups in America such as the Japanese, Czechs, Italians, Swedes, Germans, Jews, Chinese and Estonians; the dimensions of black life including slavery, the press, the family, theological seminaries, prejudice, race consciousness and bi-racial organisation; and aspects of the family, youth and gender such as desertion, personality formation, the play movement, family disorganisation, female mobility, birth control, intermarriage, divorce, demographic patterns. There are also investigations of: topics relating to deviance and marginality such as the county gaol, the juvenile court, pauper law, systems of punishment, hotel life, hobos, vice areas, gangs, suicide, insanity, prohibition and religious sects; media of communication, collective expression and culture change such as newspapers, religious missions, motion pictures and the radio; economic factors and institutions such as chain stores, the Chicago Real Estate 4 3 Board, the money market, strikes and land values; and, not least, studies of specific communities such as the Jewish ghetto in Chicago, the Finns in Michigan, Mennonite settlements in Kansas, Tepoztlan in Mexico, and Jackson in Tennessee. Lester. R. Kurtz (1984, p. 2) argues that in the period up to 1950there were three generations of Chicago sociology. Slightly revised, this framework can be extended to apply to the period from the1890s to the present.