author
Alice S. (Alice Squires) Cheyney
1888–1968
An early social-work thinker, she wrote clearly and seriously about how the field should define itself as a modern profession. Her surviving work captures a moment when social work was moving from charity-based practice toward a more systematic, academic discipline.
1 Audiobook
A definition of social work: A thesis in sociology
by Alice S. (Alice Squires) Cheyney
About the author
Born in 1888, Alice S. Cheyney—also listed as Alice Squires Cheyney—was an American writer and scholar whose known publications focus on social work and sociology. Her best-known book, A Definition of Social Work, was published in 1923 as a thesis presented to the University of Pennsylvania for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
She followed that work with The Nature and Scope of Social Work in 1926, continuing her effort to explain what social work was, what its aims should be, and how it fit into modern social thought. Even from these few surviving records, she comes across as a careful, analytical writer interested in helping a young profession describe itself with precision.
Cheyney died in 1968. Detailed biographical information about her life is limited in the sources I could confirm, so the clearest picture of her today comes through her books and their place in the early history of professional social work.