ABSTRACT
The main stimulus to the development of sociology in the United States in the late nineteenth century was the social reform movement and the liberal theology and social philosophy associated with it. They arose in the face of the social problems created by rapid industrial expansion, rampant capitalistic enterprise, urbanization, and population increase. An important aspect of Thomas's thought was the distinction between values and attitudes, values being features of society to which people adopt attitudes. The most significant growth in empirical research at Chicago dates from the growing influence of Robert Park following the dismissal of Thomas in 1918. A characteristic example of the Chicago research of the 1920s and 1930s is Zorbaugh's The Gold Coast and the Slum. The University of Chicago had been established in 1892 by William Rainey Harper, using money from Rockefeller and other wealthy patrons.
