George Herbert Mead

Author Code: AGHM

Educated at Oberlin College where he received a B.A. in 1883, Mead began teaching grade school, but after only a few months he became a surveyor with the Wisconsin Central Rail Road Co. In 1887, he returned to his education at Harvard University where he received an M.A. in 1888. While at Harvard, he tutored the children of William James. He then travelled to Europe and attended the University of Leipzig, where he pursued a PhD in philosophy and psychology. In 1891, he was offered a job at the University of Michigan as instructor in philosophy and psychology and broke off his attempt at his doctorate. At Michigan, he became close friends with John Dewey. In 1892, when Dewey was appointed the chair in philosophy at the newly created University of Chicago, he took Mead along as assistant professor of psychology. Mead stayed at the University for the remainder of his career, eventually becoming Professor of Philosophy. Mead, with Dewey and others, was a major figure in the American Pragmatists movement of the early 20th century. His work in social psychology and philosophy was a major contribution to those areas. Mead wrote hundreds of papers during his long career, but never published a book. Many of his works and lectures were collected and published after his death. Some of his major papers included Suggestions Towards a Theory of the Philosophical Discipline (1900), Social Consciousness and the Consciousness of Meaning (1910), The Mechanisms of Social Consciousness (1912), The Social Self (1913), Scientific Methods and the Moral Sciences (1923), The Genesis of Self and Social Control (1925) and The Nature of the Past (1929).