16 Facts About Louis Wirth

Louis Wirth was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology.

Louis Wirth's interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists.

Louis Wirth spent most of his academic career at the University of Chicago.

Louis Wirth was the first president of the International Sociological Association and the 37th president of the American Sociological Association.

Louis Wirth was born in the small village of Gemunden in the Hunsruck, Germany.

Louis Wirth was one of seven children born to Rosalie Lorig and Joseph Wirth.

Gemunden was a pastoral community, and Joseph Wirth earned a living as a cattle dealer.

Louis Wirth migrated in 1911 at the age of 14 to the United States where he lived with his older sister at his uncle's home in Omaha, Nebraska in 1911.

Louis Wirth was a social worker with the Bureau of Personal Service in Chicago before entering academia.

Louis Wirth was a part of Chicago School of Sociology.

Louis Wirth became assistant professor at the University of Chicago in 1931, associate professor in 1932 and full professor in 1940.

Louis Wirth's interests included city life, minority group behaviour and mass media and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists.

Louis Wirth's major contribution to social theory of urban space was a classic essay Urbanism as a Way of Life, published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1938.

Louis Wirth's research was mostly concerned with how Jewish immigrants adjusted to life in urban America, as well as the distinct social processes of city life.

Louis Wirth was a supporter of applied sociology, and believed in taking the knowledge offered by his discipline and using it to solve real social problems.

Louis Wirth died of a heart attack shortly after giving a lecture at the University of Buffalo in 1952.