His mother, an intelligent and intellectual socialist, and briefly a Communist, with a bohemian style of life, thought Charles might succeed as a skilled worker or a sportinggoods salesman. Charles seemed to have about the same expectation until he encountered a gifted teacher at the University of Illinois who introduced him to the subject of sociology. The teacher, Bill Casey, moved to Columbia University and persuaded Charles to follow him there, in 1931, to pursue an advanced degree in the subject, and helped find him a teaching job in a Manhattan private school to help pay his way. There followed a half-century career of teaching, writing, editing, lecturing, and traveling in which one success followed another to make the experience a happy and, as Page called it, a lucky jaurney.
At Columbia, Page first enrolled in the Department of Public Law and Government, but after a stimulating course with Robert M. MacIver he switched to sociology and stayed with the field for the rest of his scholarly journey. During his student years he was exposed to a considerable number of important teachers, including four who were to become presidents of the American Sociological Society (later Association). Of these Maclver, with whom he later collaborated on a book on social theory, was apparently the most influential and seemed to have set the direction of the rest of Page's career.
Also at Columbia were a number of students who in time became distinguished sociologists. Page was in fast company from the start, and almost throughout his career tended to underrate his own abilities and perhaps to be overawed by his colleagues. This modesty, however, never seemed to hinder any of the promotions and honors that came to him regularly through the years.
As he recounts his experiences of the half-century, Page reveals a good deal about the state of American sociology in his period, and of the important characters in the field, but most of this must be read between the lines; the account is of the times and people as Page encountered and perceived them. This is therefore a personal tale, but none the less interesting for that.
It is to Page's credit that the eight years of graduate study, along with a heavy load of work to support himself, are remembered as enjoyable. During most of this period he taught full-time at the City College of New York (CCNY), where he faced many bright students not only in the classroom but also in offices, restaurants, and bars-always places of discussion of sociology and of left-wing politics. Page, a lifelong socialist, was able to handle himself well in the company of the whole spectrum of liberal thinkers.
But the workload was heavy, and at the start he was paid only $900 a year for his Jabors; later, in 1933, he received $1,200, a meager sum even during the Depression. Page refers to this period at CCNY as the "Golden Age," when the school boasted "a student body of unsurpassed brilliance and passion for learning." Apart from the many able future sociologists who studied and worked there, Page includes an impressive list of public figures in other fields, among them two Nobel Prize winners.
Page's academic career was interrupted by war service in the Air Force. Upon his return, he taught for one more semester at CCNY, then entered a new and quite different 278