This work provides a review of Wirth's life based on available biographical sources including unpublished materials. It focuses on Wirth's social, political, and professional evolution, and depicts his personal development through his scholarship, his social activism, and his commitment to reform. The biography concludes with an assessment of Wirth's intellectual impact on urban sociology and reviews of recent critiques of his works.

Roger A. Salerno is a professor of sociology at Pace University in New York and a practicing psychoanalyst.