Edward Alsworth Ross (1866-1951), one of the founders of American sociology, is best remembered for his "Social Control."

Edward A. Ross was born in Virden, Ill., on Dec. 12, 1866. His father was a farmer, and his mother a schoolteacher. At 20 Ross graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, lowa; at 22, after two years as a teacher at the Ford Dodge Commercial Institute, he left for graduate study at the University of Berlin; and at 24 he received his doctorate in political economy at Johns Hopkins University.

In 1893 Ross was appointed full professor at Leland Stanford University, where he remained until his celebrated dismissal, in 1900, over the question of his right to speak out as a reformer on public issues. After five years at the University of Nebraska, he left in 1906 for the University of Wisconsin, famed for its Progressive-minded faculty and teachings. He spent the rest of his career at...