Nels Anderson

Raised in a family that moved often, he turned lived experience on the road and in working-class communities into a lifelong interest in how people survive on the margins. He studied at Brigham Young University and later at the University of Chicago, where he worked in the orbit of the early Chicago School of sociology.

He is best known for The Hobo (1923), an influential study of homeless and itinerant workers in Chicago. The book is widely remembered as an early and important example of participant-based urban research, combining close observation with sympathy for people usually ignored or stereotyped.

Over a long career, he wrote about urban culture, labor, and social life, and later taught at the University of New Brunswick. His work remains valued for its humane, practical way of looking at cities and the people who move through them.