Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Horowitz, Irving Louis

Titel

C. WRIGHT MILLS: AN AMERICAN UTOPIAN

Erscheinungsjahr

1983

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In III PARTS & 14 Chpts, this is a biography of the sociologist C. Wright Mills, which chronicles his intellectual development, professional life, & social & political views. The first part maps Mills's intellectual development in an academic progression from the Us of Texas & Wisconsin to faculty posts at the U of Maryland & at Columbia. The second section concerns Mills's early studies of John Dewey, Karl Mannheim, Charles Peirce, Karl Marx, Max Weber, & others whose work helped shape his intellectual & ideological development & his goals as a social scientist. A third part analyzes Mills's major writings & social beliefs. Chpt (1) Introduction to an American Utopian - locates Mills within a tradition of utopian social criticism, while at the same time emphasizing Mills's pragmatism. PART I - SETTINGS - includes (2) Texas Cosmopolitanism - which describes Mills's personal background, first marriage, student years at the U of Texas, & early sociopolitical influences; (3) Ishmael in North Star Country - recounts Mills's years at the U of Wisconsin as a graduate student, his friendship with Hans Gerth, & personal animosities between Mills, other students, & faculty; (4) Pacificism in Wartime Washington - discusses graduate research at the U of Maryland, & growing concern with power politics & the failure of liberalism; (5) Marginality in Morningside Heights - narrates the move to Columbia U, friendships & relationships with social critics, political & literary writers, the gradual estrangement from professional sociology & ambiguity toward empirical research. PART II - SOURCES - deals with (6) Pragmatism and the Revolt Against Formalism - which analyzes Mills's PhD Dissertation on Charles Peirce, William James, & John Dewey; his disaffection for pragmatism & interest in European political radicalism are characterized; (7) From the Sociology of Knowledge to the Knowledge of Sociology - summarizes Karl Mannheim's influences upon Mills's social & political views; (8) The Protestant Weber and the Spirit of American Sociology - reviews Max Weber's influences upon various movements within sociology, Mills's assessment of Weber's work on power & authority & his critique of Weberian rationalism; (9) Plain Folks and Marxist Dragons - examines Mills's efforts toward a "sociological reconsideration of Marx," his perception of the antipathy between liberalism & Marxism in its significance for contemporary civilization; Mills's concern with economic, military, & political determinism is presented. PART III - SUBSTANCES - discusses (10) Proletarian Power and the American Dream Machine - which is a commentary on the analysis of American organized labor in The New Men of Power (1948); (11) White Collar, Gray Flannel, and the Rise of Professionalism - discusses White Collar (1951), Mills's analyses of the new American Mc & of industrial & governmental bureaucracies; the critical response to the book is indicated; (12) Trinity of Power - analyzes major themes of power & stratification dealt with in The Power Elite (1956), the controversy the work engendered, & its contribution to contemporary political analysis; (13) The Causes of C. Wright Mills - characterizes Mills's constituencies, his social & political causes, eg, the Cuban Revolution, & the evils of modern technological development; (14) Postscript to Utopia: History and the Fourth Epoch - summarizes themes in an ideology for the "New Left," Mills's ethics & beliefs about ethics in scientific practice, & acknowledgements of the social costs of progress. References.