The history of clinical sociology in the United States

Sociology in the United States emerged as a discipline at a time when the nation was struggling with issues of democracy, capitalism, and social justice. Sociology began to develop during the Progressive Era, a period that dates from about the mid-1890s through 1916. It was an age marked by reform and, at the same time, the emergence of corporate capitalism (Sklar, 1988). There was rural and urban poverty, a growing need for economic security, women were still without the vote, and there were lynchings. At the turn of the twentieth century, frustration led to public protests and the development of public interest groups and reform organizations (Clemens, 1997; Sanders, 1999). In this climate, it is not surprising that many of the early sociologists were scholar-practitioners interested in reducing or solving the pressing social problems that confronted their communities.