During the years 1952 to 1961 Hughes served as editor to the American Journal of Sociology during an era when the journal remained closely linked to the University of Chicago and its sociology department. During Hughes' era, the journal was traditional in the sense that double-blind review was not applied. When this was implemented in 1961 after Hughes' resignation, he strongly opposed what he perceived as a project of making sociological research appear as disembodied and detached from the social context where it was carried out (Abbott 1999, 146–147). In a letter to Peter Blau who had taken over editorship from him Hughes expressed his view as follows: