C. Wright Mills: An American Utopian

Horowitz, Irving Louis

doi:10.2307/25142654

Cited by 11 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Perhaps such an enterprise could have articulated a more forceful counterpoint to the rightward lurch in American society and politics that, by the late 1940s, had given conservatives substantial power to cast those who stood anywhere to the left of a restricted centrist position on pressing domestic and foreign policy issues as "un-American." But despite some notable exceptions on the liberal left like C. Wright Mills (Mills, 1959; see also Horowitz, 1983), mid-century American social scientists commonly emphasized technical rigor rather than critical analysis, the stability of American democracy and the productivity of American capitalism rather than their limitations, the extent and virtues of social consensus rather than the sources of legitimate social conflict, professional service by scholars to the national-security state rather than independent assessment of its unseemly dimensions. In sum, not only did the postwar science debate take place at a crucial historical juncture for American science and social science, but, when placed in a wider and longer perspective, the SSRC's contested decision to hitch a ride on the "coattails" of the natural sciences becomes a significant event in the rocky histories of the "other sciences" and American liberalism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Riding natural scientists' coattails onto the endless frontier: The SSRC and the quest for scientific legitimacy

Solovey¹

2004

J History Behavioral Science

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This article proposes that the postwar National Science Foundation (NSF) debate constituted a critical, transitional episode in American social science and partisan politics. I show that by responding to powerful conservative critics in the scientific and political communities, the Social Science Research Council's (SSRC's) leading scholars (re)asserted a contested scientistic strategy-to advance the social sciences by following the natural sciences. Further, I reconstruct a wider and longer framework of analysis in order to recover central challenges to the scientistic strategy raised by prominent liberal scholars who rejected the associated commitments to value neutrality and disinterested professionalism. In developing this framework for understanding the contrasting fortunes of each strategy, this article argues that the NSF debate has a deep historical significance-for the social sciences, for American liberalism, and for the nation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Riding natural scientists' coattails onto the endless frontier: The SSRC and the quest for scientific legitimacy

Solovey¹

2004

J History Behavioral Science

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“…Irving Louis Horowitz (1983) has argued that Mills was a "radical conservatism," a position that Horowitz says enabled him to pick up support from an odd assortment of populist types. He then speculates on what this support meant to Mills: "that support must have been as disturbing and unnerving to Mills as lack of support from the critics he had come to depend on" (p. 291).…”

Section: Mills Writes Backmentioning

confidence: 99%

C. Wright Mills: A Political Writer and his Fan Mail

Sawchuk¹

2001

Canadian Journal of Communication

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This paper examines the "fan mail" received by C. Wright Mills from his readership to better understand the reasons for Mills' popularity as a public intellectual in the 1950s. The paper documents Mills' strategic use of magazines and penny press publishers, his deployment of vernacular stylistic forms to express political issues, and the responses of these fans. These writerly readers not only lauded Mills' efforts but offered their constructive criticism and personal testimony, which Mills sometimes incorporated back into his speeches and articles. Many letter writers assisted in the circulation of Mills' texts within other informal networks, thus shedding light on the political conjuncture of the 1950s. The paper also attends to the methodological and epistemological challenge of using such letters, typically used to study responses to popular cultural texts, for the study of intellectual history.Résumé: Cet article se penche sur le courrier des « admirateurs » de C. Wright Mills afin de mieux comprendre les raisons de la popularité du sociologue amé-ricain en tant qu'intellectuel engagé durant les années 1950. On y documente l'utilisation stratégique par Mills des magazines et des journaux populaires, du langage vernaculaire pour aborder des questions politiques, ainsi que les réac-tions des lecteurs à ses interventions. Ceux-ci félicitaient l'auteur pour ses efforts de vulgarisation; ils lui offraient également commentaires constructifs et témoi-gnages que Mills incorporait à l'occasion dans ses conférences et ses articles. Plusieurs de ces épistoliers ont aussi fait circuler les textes du sociologue dans leurs réseaux informels, contribution éclairante à la compréhension de la conjoncture politique des années 1950. Cet article s'attache enfin au défi méthodo-logique et épistémologique posé par l'utilisation de ce type de documents, typiquement employés pour analyser les réactions à des textes de culture populaire, pour étudier l'histoire du monde intellectuel.I work and live very rapidly these days. I am writing constantly. Mine is a pen from whose point much ink will flow and someday into the brains of the populace. But let that be.

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“…Вторая часть -под названием «Методологические следствия: три проблемы для патоло-гов» -до сих пор не издана и хранится в архиве Миллса в Универ-ситете штата Техас в Остине. Опубликованная часть представляет собой детальное исследование целого пласта социологической лите-ратуры, посвященной различным «социальным патологиям» 5 . Миллс показывает, каковы социальные истоки тем, которые поднимаются в этой литературе (представленной преимущественно учебниками).…”

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“…4 По словам Стенли Ароновица, «книга Мангейма, переведенная Эдвар-дом Шилзом и выдающимся социологом-урбанистом Луисом Виртом, произвела глубочайшее впечатление на социологов» [1, p. 29]. 5 Краткий обзор развития социопатологии как социологического на-правления до и после публикации статьи Миллса можно найти в работе Уты Герхадт «Дилемма социопатологии» [3]. Хотя традиция социопа-тологии в чистом виде исчерпала себя примерно в 1950-е годы, изуче-ние так называемых «социальных проблем» продолжается до сих пор.…”

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Introduction of the interpreter to C. Whight Mills' article «The professional ideology of social pathologists»

Korbut¹

2013

SocJour

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C. Wright Mills: An American Utopian

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Riding natural scientists' coattails onto the endless frontier: The SSRC and the quest for scientific legitimacy

Riding natural scientists' coattails onto the endless frontier: The SSRC and the quest for scientific legitimacy

C. Wright Mills: A Political Writer and his Fan Mail

Introduction of the interpreter to C. Whight Mills' article «The professional ideology of social pathologists»

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