ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how Georg Simmel’s theories played a part in the growth of the Chicago School. The publication of Small’s translations of various of Simmel’s works in the early issues of the journal made a considerable contribution to the spread of Simmel’s ideas. Simmel, whose first article in the USA appeared in 1893, had without doubt more enduring theoretical and methodological influence on the origins of American sociology in the nineteenth century than did any other European sociologist. In the context of the Chicago School, Simmel’s ideas reached the peak of their influence with the publication of the Introduction to the Science of Sociology in 1921 by Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess. The importance of German sociology in the USA is shown by the great number of American sociologists who went to study at the University of Berlin during the period in which Simmel taught there.
