author
William Isaac Thomas
1863–1947
A pioneering American sociologist, he helped shape early modern sociology by studying how people interpret social situations and how migration changes everyday life. He is especially remembered for work that fed into symbolic interactionism and for the influential study The Polish Peasant in Europe and America.
2 Audiobooks
The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior Analysis
by William Isaac Thomas
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex
by William Isaac Thomas
About the author
Born in Russell County, Virginia, on August 13, 1863, William Isaac Thomas became one of the most important figures in early American sociology. He taught at Oberlin College and later at the University of Chicago, where his work helped define the Chicago school’s interest in urban life, culture, and social behavior.
Thomas studied the relationship between personality and culture, and he became known for treating letters, life histories, and other personal documents as serious evidence for social research. With Florian Znaniecki, he coauthored The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918–1920), a landmark study of immigration, family life, and social change.
He is also closely associated with the idea later called the Thomas theorem: that when people define situations as real, those definitions have real consequences. That simple insight gave later sociologists a powerful way to think about meaning, behavior, and society, and it remains one of his most lasting contributions.