ABSTRACT
The Chicago School of Sociology is the moniker bestowed on social scientists engaged in sociological work at the University of Chicago circa 1915–1930. Historically recognized as comprising the first American school of sociology, a notion that is debunked in this chapter, the Chicago School is noted for its contributions to the discipline in a number of areas including, but not limited to, urban sociology and ethnography. While it is demonstrable that the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory took very seriously the relationship between data collection methods and research conclusions in the late 1890s, Platt argues that neither the Chicago School nor the contemporary mainstream White American sociological enterprise embraced this same notion. A methodological contribution of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory is the institutionalization of the insider researcher. While the contributions identified heretofore are significant in their own right, perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory is its establishment of the first American school of sociology.
