Portrait of George Herbert Mead

Birthday profile

George Herbert Mead

George Herbert Mead, American sociologist and philosopher (died 1930)

Born
February 27, 1863
Died
April 26, 1931
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1863

About George Herbert Mead

George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatism. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, and was an important influence on what has come to be referred to as the Chicago School of Sociology. Mead argued that we are objects first to other people, and secondarily we become objects to ourselves by taking the perspective of other people. Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead considered Mead a thinker of the first rank. This concept of how the mind and self emerge from the social process of communication by signs founded the symbolic interactionist school of sociology.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when George Herbert Mead was born

George Herbert Mead was born in 1863. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1863

  • Best-selling bookLes Misérables by Victor Hugo (English translation)

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst organized baseball game with set rules
  • Top headlineEmancipation Proclamation frees enslaved people
  • Technology milestoneFirst subway opens in London
  • World population~1.43B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderAbraham Lincoln
  • U.S. population32.6M

1863 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in George Herbert Mead's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18632026
Population32.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.