Radical Sociologists and the Movement

Experiences, Lessons, and Legacies

Edited by Martin Oppenheimer, Martin J. Murray, and Rhonda F. Levine
Book Cover

HC: $55.50
EAN: 978-0-87722-745-8
Publication: Jan 91

Ebook: $56.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-0170-0
Publication: Jan 91

256 pages


Autobiographical essays by individuals whose radicalism developed in and around the discipline of sociology

Description

As part of the current rediscovery of the Sixties, this book brings together autobiographical essays by individuals whose radicalism developed in and around the academic discipline of sociology. The contributors expose the roots of their radical consciousness by examining interrelated personal and historical themes: how the socioeconomic and political conditions of the 1960s acted as an intellectual incubator that served to radicalize a significant number of sociologists; and how critical, radical, Marxist, and humanist sociology developed in the context of this era. Aiming to "redefine sociology to correspond to social reality," these academics broke from the institutional establishment and turned to radical interpretations of the persistence of racial and gender inequality, power relations, the permanence of privilege and poverty, the causes and consequences of war, among other topics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Movement and the Academy – Martin J. Murray, and Rhonda F. Levine

Part I: The History of Radical Sociology
1. The Sociology Liberation Movement: Some Legacies and Lessons – Dick Flacks
2. Steps Taken Toward Liberating Sociologists – Alfred McClung Lee
3. The Early Years of the Sociology Liberation Movement – Carol A. Brown
4. Talking Sociology: A Sixties Fragment – Evan Stark
5. The Contradictions of Radical Sociology: Ideological Purity and Dissensus at Washington University – Henry Etzkowitz
6. Building Fires on the Prairie – Martin J. Murray

Part II: Becoming a Sociologist
7. Pages from a Journal of the Middle Left – Martin Oppenheimer
8. Critical Sociologists: Born or Made? – Norma Stolz Chinchilla
9. Coming Home: A Sociological Journey – Lynda Ann Ewen
10. The Making of a Class-Conscious "Race Man": Reflections on the Sixties – Robert G. Newby
11. Living and Learning Sociology: The Unorthodox Way – Hardy T. Frye
12. At the Center and the Edge: Notes on a Life in and out of Sociology and the New Left – Robert J. S. Ross

Part III: Sociology in Action
13. "lf We Know, Then We Must Fight", The Origins of Radical Criminology in the U.S. – Tony Platt
14. Notes from an Anarchist Sociologist: May 1989 – Howard J. Ehrlich

Part IV: Documents
15. Fat-Cat Sociology – Martin Nicolaus
16. Women’s Caucus Statement and Resolutions to the General Business Meeting of the American Sociological Association, 3 September 1969

The Contributors
Index

About the Author(s)

Martin Oppenheimer is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University.

Martin J. Murray is Associate Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Binghamton.

Rhonda F. Levine is Associate Professor of Sociology at Colgate University.