| This study is an analysis of the first comprehensive social survey conducted in the United States: the Pittsburgh Survey of 1908. On the basis of a discovery of all the original field data of the central volume of this six-volume study--The Steel Workers, by John A. Fitch--a discussion of the findings and interpretations of this survey is pursued. A study of labor conflicts--especially that at Homestead in 1892--of the process of steel and ironmaking and finally of community politics is undertaken. This discussion is pursued in light of certain themes characteristic of the social thought of the reformers who conducted this research: "the public interest," "industrial democracy," and "the science of industrial society." Lastly, the Pittsburgh Survey--its findings and interpretive ideas--is placed within the context of the then controversial debate over the "social problem," a debate which animated social thought and political life not only in the Progressive era in the United States, but also in France, England and Germany. |
