John Andrews Fitch (1881–1959) was an American writer, teacher, and pioneering social investigator of the

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

. He is best known for his contributions to

The Pittsburgh Survey ''The Pittsburgh Survey'' (1907–1908) was a pioneering sociological study of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States funded by the Russell Sage Foundation of New York City. It is widely considered a landmark of the Progressive Era re ...

, a landmark study of social conditions in an archetypal U.S. industrial city. Born in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

, he was a 1904 graduate of

Yankton College Yankton College is a former private liberal arts college in Yankton, South Dakota, United States, affiliated with the Congregational Christian Churches (later the United Church of Christ). Yankton College produced nine Rhodes Scholars, more than a ...

. He taught at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

's Weeping Water Academy before enrolling at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

for graduate studies in

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

. In the fall of 1907 he joined with his professor,

John R. Commons John Rogers Commons (October 13, 1862 – May 11, 1945) was an American institutional economist, Georgist, progressive and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Early years John R. Commons was born in Hollansburg, Ohio on ...

, on a trip to

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

to begin work with dozens of other progressives on an ambitious sociological study:

Paul Kellogg Paul Underwood Kellogg (September 30, 1879 – November 1, 1958) was an American journalist and social reformer. He died at 79 in New York on November 1, 1958. Life He was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1879. After working as a journalist he m ...

's Pittsburgh Survey, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. Fitch spent more than a year interviewing steel workers. The resulting book, ''The Steel Workers'', was published in 1910, one of the Survey's six published volumes. It remains a classic depiction of a key industry in early twentieth-century America. Fitch, after a brief stint working for the New York Department of Labor, was an editor and writer for Paul Kellogg's ''Survey'', America's leading social work journal. Beginning in 1917 Fitch taught labor relations as a professor at the New York School of Social Work, where he retired in 1946.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, John A. 1881 births 1959 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni 20th-century American economists Labor historians Progressive Era in the United States