DEAR LOVE, DEAR LOVE - FEMINIST PRAGMATISM AND THE CHICAGO FEMALE WORLD OF LOVE AND RITUAL

The history of women in sociology is explored here through the corresp ondence written by Sophonisba P. Breckinridge to Marion Talbot in the summer of 1936. Their loving letters reveal the ideas and practices of feminist pragmatism and the female world of love and ritual located i n Chicago in the twentieth century. This world of professional women f lourished around the social settlement Hull House and the University o f Chicago during the founding years of sociology. Their lives and soci al thought challenge our understanding of the emergence of sociology a t the University of Chicago, and their ideas remain a rich resource fo r analyzing society today.