He was born in
Belfast on 9 May 1870, and was educated at
Methodist College Belfast and
Trinity College, Dublin. He emigrated to the United States and graduated B.A. at
Stanford University in 1894. He then worked as a librarian, first at Stanford and then at the
Mechanics-Mercantile Library in San Francisco. He had positions at the
University of California, becoming Associate Professor there in 1911; in 1919 a new department was set up for him, at Berkeley, the Department of Social Institutions. A full professor in 1925, he retired in 1940, although he remained actively engaged in research until shortly before his death. He supervised
Robert Nisbet's doctorate studies. ==Influence on Toynbee==