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The article describes the role of the Chicago School of Sociology in the development of empirical social research. It traces the increase in the significance of the education of doctoral students on American universities at the turn of the 20th century, and the role of philanthropic foundations. It focuses on the contribution of prominent individuals: W. R. Harper, rector and founder of the University of Chicago, obtained top figures and founded journals in some major fields. A. W. Small was the first chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, founded the American Journal of Sociology and wrote the first two textbooks of sociology. W. I. Thomas was responsible for the famous study Polish Peasant in Europe and America and for the theoretical foundations passed on to his successors. In 1916 R. E. Park published a project in which Chicago became a social laboratory and he inspired and was an advisor for numerous doctoral projects that later were published as sociological monographs. The methodologist E. W. Burgess organized empirical research for the school of doctoral studies that emerged in Chicago and successfully worked there for twenty years. It is beyond the scope of one article to discuss also the monographs by doctoral students at the University of Chicago. Paper examines in detail only the monograph by Park, Burgess and McKenzie titled The City.

Bratinka, P.: Vergleich der Gesellschaften : Tschechen und Deutsche vor und nach der Wende. - S. 11-14 Ide, R.: Privatsache Ost : warum die Ostdeutschen so depressiv sind. - S. 15-18 Lebeda, T.: Soziokulturelle Bedingungen für regionale Unterschiede des Wahlverhaltens. - S. 19-20 Wolle, S.: Die Diktatur der Eintracht : Sozialpolitik, Sprache und Herrschaft in der DDR. - S. 21-28 Alboğa, B.: Multikulturalität - Realität in Deutschland. - S. 30-34 Baur, C.: Integration durch Bildung in ethnisch segregierten Stadtteilen. - S. 35-38 Holomek, K.: Fragen und Probleme der Integration von Roma in der Tschechischen Republik. - S. 39-42 Horáková, K.: Soziale Verankerung ethnischer Minderheiten. - S. 43-45 Kien, C. P.: Die vietnamesische Gemeinschaft in der Tschechischen Republik seit der Samtenen Revolution. - S. 46-48 Rose, R.: Gleichstellung für Sinti und Roma als Bürger in Deutschland. - S. 49-52

This paper focuses on "The Philadelphia Negro": a community study that stands at the start of American social research. This somewhat forgotten empirical study from 1899 describes the historical conditions and the economic and social causes and circumstances behind the formation and existence of the "Seventh Ward", a slum neighbourhood in Philadelphia inhabited by African-Americans. The study used survey and other methods of observation and analysis of historical, economic and social data. The study was written by the erudite Harvard University graduate William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, an African-American, and an economist, historian and sociologist. Using primary and secondary literature and archive sources this paper shows that Du Bois was the author of the first empirical social research study in the United States. It looks at his life, his research, and his opinions on racial issues. He created a programme of research on the African-American population and from 1898 to 1910 he headed the first school of sociology on the American continent at the University of Atlanta. He published the results of scientific analyses of the lives of African-Americans in the south of the United States in sixteen volumes of the Atlanta University Studies. Racial prejudices among the American sociological elites prevented both Du Bois and his work from receiving the attention they rightly deserve.