Social Survey Invented by Sociology

Here’s a fun read by E. W. Burgess, who was writing in 1916 about the importance of social surveys as a “constructive service by departments of sociology”:

“Indeed a case might well be made for the statement that the social survey was an invention of the sociologist. In every department of sociology in the country beginners in the science have been initiated into this method of community study.”

Photo: University of Michigan via Flickr, adapted by S@W.