author
Carl Kelsey
1870–1953
A longtime University of Pennsylvania sociologist, he wrote about race, labor, social change, and U.S. intervention abroad. His work reflects the wide-ranging, reform-minded concerns of early twentieth-century American social science.
1 Audiobook
The Negro Farmer
by Carl Kelsey
About the author
Born in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1870 and later based in Philadelphia, Carl Kelsey was an American sociologist who spent much of his career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he became a professor of sociology. He died in 1953 after a long academic life closely tied to Penn.
Kelsey wrote on an unusually broad mix of subjects, including wages, immigration, social evolution, and public policy. Among the works associated with him are The Negro Farmer, The Physical Basis of Society, Present-Day Immigration with Special Reference to the Japanese, and The American Intervention in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, showing both his sociological range and his interest in urgent public questions of his time.
He also played a role in the early history of Penn's social work education: a centennial history of the School of Social Policy & Practice identifies him as consulting director when the training course that helped found the school was established. Today, he is remembered as part of the generation that helped shape sociology and social service education in the United States.