His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists.

Wirth migrated in 1911 at the age of 14 to the United States where he lived with his older sister at his uncle's home in Omaha, Nebraska in 1911.

[1] His interests included city life, minority group behaviour and mass media and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists.

Wirth was a supporter of applied sociology, and believed in taking the knowledge offered by his discipline and using it to solve real social problems.

According to Wirth, marriage tends to be postponed, and the proportion of single people is growing, leading to isolation and less interaction.

It is in this respect that Wirth's path-breaking and insightful work still amply rewards detailed study even today, some seventy years after his original investigations.

[14] A good example of Wirth's work, which includes a comprehensive bibliography, is On Cities and Social Life, published in 1964.