author
Charles Josiah Galpin
1864–1947
A pioneering American rural sociologist, he helped turn the study of farm life and country communities into a serious field of research. His writing explores how people, institutions, and daily life are shaped by the social world of rural America.
1 Audiobook
Empty churches : The rural-urban dilemma
by Charles Josiah Galpin
About the author
Born in Hamilton, New York, on March 16, 1864, Charles Josiah Galpin became one of the early scholars most closely associated with rural sociology. He studied at Colgate, later taught sociology at the University of Wisconsin, and became known for close, practical research into rural populations, community life, and standards of living.
Galpin is often described as a trailblazer in the study of rural social organization. Rather than treating the countryside as a vague backdrop, he examined how farms, churches, schools, and local relationships formed real social systems. That focus helped give rural sociology a clearer shape at a time when the field was still emerging.
His books include Rural Life, Rural Social Problems, Empty Churches, and My Drift into Rural Sociology. He died on June 1, 1947, but his work remains part of the early foundation for understanding how rural communities function and change.