SOURCE: "Robert Ezra Park, 1864-1944," in Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1977, pp. 257-383.

In the following essay, Coser discusses Park's influences and the progress of his career.

The Work

Readers who are familiar with the work of the Chicago School of Sociology and its most influential member, Robert E. Park, may wonder why a chapter in a book on sociological theory is devoted to a man most often associated with research rather than theory. The fact is, however, that Park himself, although very much concerned with accurate social reporting and description, saw his major contribution in the development of a set of concepts that would allow systematic classification and analysis of social data.

The contemporary assessment of Robert Park's work roughly coincides with his self-appraisal when he wrote:

We had in sociology much theory but no working concepts. When...