C. Wright Mills author photo

C. Wright Mills

Né(e): August 28, 1916 – Waco, Texas, United States

Liens sociaux:

C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist whose work examined power, social stratification, and the relationship between private troubles and public issues. Best known for The Sociological Imagination, The Power Elite, and White Collar, he became one of the twentieth century’s most influential social critics and a foundational voice in modern sociology.

Biographie et Parcours de l'Auteur

C. Wright Mills, born Charles Wright Mills in Waco, Texas, in 1916, emerged as one of the most forceful American sociologists of the twentieth century. He studied first in Texas and then at the University of Wisconsin, where he completed his doctorate in sociology in 1941 after earlier degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. Those years gave him a durable mix of philosophical range and empirical interest. His early career took shape during wartime and the postwar expansion of American institutions, and a decisive turning point came with his move to Columbia University, where he worked for most of his professional life. From there he developed the independent, often combative voice that made him unusual in academic sociology: learned, public-facing, and openly skeptical of complacent expertise.

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Citations

quote
Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both
-The Sociological Imagination
quote
The powers of ordinary men are circumscribed by the everyday worlds in which they live
-The Power Elite
quote
The white-collar man is the hero as victim
-White Collar
quote
Be a good craftsman: Avoid any rigid set of procedures
-On Intellectual Craftsmanship
quote
Such a labour metaphysic, I think, is a legacy from Victorian Marxism that is now quite unrealistic
-Letter to the New Left
quote
The immediate cause of World War III is the preparation of it
-The Causes of World War Three

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Voix de la Communauté

"C. Wright Mills was one of the most controversial figures in American social science"

Encyclopedia.com

"C. Wright Mills was, in one sense, the most European of American sociologists"

John Brewer

"C. Wright Mills, the iconic U.S. public sociologist, was very much a product of his times"

Michael Burawoy

"C. Wright Mills has been described as a "volcanic eminence" in the academic world"

Encyclopedia.com

"C. Wright Mills was one of the leading public intellectuals in twentieth-century America"

UC Press

"C. Wright Mills was a famed sociologist, social commentator and critic"

Simon & Schuster

"C. Wright Mills was one of the most important sociologists of the 20th century"

Social Science Bites

"C. Wright Mills' radicalism arose out of an intimate engagement with mainstream social science issues"

Nelson Lichtenstein

"C. Wright Mills has been described as an American Utopian"

Simon & Schuster

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