Professional Sociology: The Case of C.

Wright Mills

The Story of C. Wright Mills
Mills famous dictum holds that personal troubles are public problems. What seem to be
the private troubles of a single person are the result, at the individual level, of the
or!ing out of the problems of the society that person lives in. "eing ithout a #ob is a
terrible personal trouble, but it is neither the result nor the fault of anything the
unemployed have done. $ather, it is the or!ing out, for them, of society%s inability or
unillingness to provide full employment.
Mills% dictum as never more true than in his on case. &is professional problems
ere the outcome, on the personal level, of the general directions and troubles of
'merican sociology during his lifetime. (sing his dictum as an analytic research tool,
e can inspect Mills% professional life and intellectual career to see hat it reveals about
the public )or, better put, the institutional and organi*ational+ problems of sociology
)and, especially, 'merican sociology+ in the middle of the ,-th century. This is the
fruitful perspective from hich .rving /ouis &oroit* approached Mills life0 this essay
is an appreciation and retelling of &oroit*%s analysis.
's &oroit* tells the story, in C.Wright Mills: 'n 'merican (topian 1any 2uic!
summary must necessarily do an in#ustice to his massively detailed, heavily
documented, and insightful biography1Mills as alays an intensely 'merican
sociologist, steeped in the perspective of philosophical pragmatism from his college
days at the (niversity of Te3as onard, and holding that point of vie, in one form or
another, throughout his short, eventful, troubled life. 'lmost alays in conflict ith
colleagues and bosses, he produced a body of or!1especially the trilogy on
stratification )The 4e Men of Poer, White Collar, and The Poer 5lite + and the
handboo! of sociological practice he called The Sociological .magination 1hich still
e3cites sociologists, professionals and students ali!e.
Mills professional troubles reflected a for! in the road of sociologys disciplinary
development. .t had once been possible for an 'merican sociologist, as it had been for
sociologists in other countries at other times and is for some even today, to be admired
by colleagues for serious professional or! and simultaneously be a voice in the ma#or
political and cultural dialogues of the day. Ma3 Weber did it, producing or!s that ere
scholarly to a fare6thee6ell and also spea!ing out on such contemporary 7erman
political problems as nationalism. $aymond 'ron did it, ith scholarly or!s on
politics and regular political riting in such ma#or Parisian papers as 8igaro and
l53press.. "ut no 'merican sociologist had pulled this off in a long time )e might
have to go as far bac! as 5. '. $oss to find anything similar+ and those ho had tried it
)e.g., 9avid $iesman+ ere often unfairly critici*ed by colleagues as :populari*ers.;
"ut that as hat Mills anted to do. &e anted to be a respected professional, in a
field in hich professionalism as coming to be defined in a narroly disciplinary ay,
and a spea!er on the big contemporary issues, at a time hen success ith those narro
disciplinary concerns dis2ualified you as such a spea!er, almost by definition.
Mills thus had a double dilemma. <n the one hand, he anted to be more than #ust
another political thin!er. 'lthough he admired the 4e =or! intellectuals associated
ith the influential #ournals of opinion of the day, he anted to be something they ere
not and did not ant to be, a social scientist. &e could not be satisfied to be #ust another
9ight Mc9onald riting essays, hoever insightful, in the pages of Politics.. &e
anted to bring something special to this !ind of engaged political riting: the fruits of
the historical tradition of social science, as that tradition as personified by Ma3 Weber
and other classical sociological thin!ers.
.t is implicit in Millss understanding of the relation beteen public issues and private
troubles that society changes continuously and that, therefore, peoples personal
problems ill change as the society around them changes. This thought can be applied
to the problem of a scholarly and political career of the !ind Mills anted. 7eorge
>ubler, the art historian, has suggested1the idea converges nicely ith Millss1that an
artists )substitute thin!er or social scientist+ reputation and professional fate are a
function of hen in the development of an institutionali*ed se2uence of thought and
or! that person appears. 'ppearing at the beginning of a se2uence of or! in a certain
line, for instance, has great advantages, for you ill not be held responsible for the same
things someone ho appears in the middle or at the end must attend to.
Mills appeared at the height of the :professionali*ing; of sociology and his problems
are thus the problems of someone trying to put together things that could have gone
together easily earlier, and might ell go together later, but not hen he tried it.
Theory, Contemporary Problems, and Professionalism
Scientists alays conceive of their disciplines as universal0 they ould not li!e to thin!
that 8rench chemistry deals ith the same 2uestions differently, and produces different
ansers to them, than $ussian or 7erman chemistry. Similarly, social scientists ant
social science to deal ith universal problems, to produce universally accepted
propositions. <nly by so doing, they typically thin!, can they achieve a true science.
Since social science is an international enterprise, social scientists everyhere try to
!eep in touch ith the universal concerns of their disciplines.
"ut social science, because its most general concerns are embodied in particular cases,
necessarily deals ith problems of serious and immediate concern to the members of
the societies in hich it develops. So, as sociology has developed in different countries,
it has inevitably ta!en on a national character, devoting itself to the historically specific
problems of each country. Those problems are not universal, though they have family
resemblances.
'merican sociology, in its beginnings, thus devoted itself to the problems of its on
society, the rapidly e3panding 'merica of the late ?@th and early ,-th centuries. The
problems it addressed included integrating the immigrants ho ere then flooding the
country, teaching them to be :good 'mericans;0 the racial problems hich began ith
slavery and too! a ne turn ith 5mancipation0 and the massive dislocations and
reorgani*ations created by urbani*ation. .ndeed, $obert 5. Par!, one of the architects of
the ne discipline, defined the ma#or problem of the modern orld in terms he had
learned by observing the 2uintessentially 'merican city of Chicago: :'ll the orld no
either lives in the city or is on its ay there.;
"ra*ilian social science, to ta!e a case described in detail by Mari*a Peirano, reflected a
different set of concerns. "ecause social science developed in international metropolitan
centers )for "ra*il until after World War .. the preferred center as Paris+, it dealt ith
issues that, relevant to the concerns of those centers, ere not germane to "ra*ilian
national concerns. "ra*ilians, intellectuals and lay people ali!e, anted ansers to such
2uestions as: What is a "ra*ilian )as opposed to a 5uropean or, later, a 4orth
'mericanA+ &o should they conceptuali*e the mi3ture of the three races1hite,
blac!, and .ndian1hich made up "ra*ils populationA Was that mi3ture an advantage
in the contest for international recognition or a disgrace to be apologi*ed for and
overcomeA .n our on time, "ra*ilian social scientists as!ed a 2uestion of great national
import: ho to overcome the relation ith 5urope and 'merica hich resulted in
underdevelopment. What they came to ant as hat they called a sociologia6feita6no6
"rasil, a sociology6made6in6"ra*il, relevant to their problems, not to those of 8rance,
7ermany, or the (nited States.
4ational sociologies also develop distinctive emphases, in part, because their ma!ers
ant hat they do to appear different from dominant trends in the discipline seen
internationally. Thus, according to Bean1Michel Chapoulie, 8rench sociologists, after
World War .., shaped their or! in part to ma!e clear that it as different from the
sociology made in the (nited States )partly, too, to situate themselves vis6C6vis the
or!ers% movement and the associated political debates+.
So national sociologies oscillate beteen a concern ith national problems and national
emphases, a sociology6made6in6"ra*il or 8rance or herever, ta!ing its shape from
those distinctive nationally based concerns, and a concern ith the development of a
style of thought that is :universal,; or at least trans1national, capable of dealing ith
and being relevant to the concerns of all the particular countries in hich it develops.
This can ta!e the form of an abstract theoretical concern ith problems defined, at least
on the surface, holly ithin the discipline, in the manner described by Thomas >uhn
as characteristic of the development of any scientific discipline. System builders li!e
Talcott Parsons e3emplified this tac!. The impulse to universality at other times ta!es
the form of a history of the orld cast in sociological terms, hich to some seems to
offer the possibility of satisfying both the demand for generality and the need to deal
ith specific problems, hich can be seen to embody general trends in orld history.
When social scientists concern themselves ith contemporary 2uestions, their
disciplines become less autonomous and self1contained, more responsive to people
ho are not professional colleagues, less :universal,; more attuned to broader
intellectual currents in their on society. They confront other currents of thought, other
theoretical stances, other styles of or! hich are very often not respectful of sociology
and its autonomy.
&oroit*, alays attentive to the international character of social science, nevertheless
does not put such comparisons at the center of his analysis of the case of Mills, a case
e can perhaps understand better by considering it comparatively. 'merican sociology,
hen Mills entered the picture, as moving aay from :problems; and toard a more
automous and :professional; orientation, aay from the concern ith contemporary
politics that so attracted him and toard an esoteric body of 2uestions that signified, to
its developers, the achievement of truly professional status. 'nd that vision dre him
too.
&o many hours a dayA
&oroit* has distinguished beteen occupationalism and professionalism in
mainstream sociological or!1beteen those ho ant to tie the discipline to
established institutions and those ho, letting it develop according to its on logic, are
2uite happy to see in it a criti2ue of e3isting institutions, &e identified Mills as an
occupationalist, and cited The Sociological .magination as a classic e3position of that
point of vie. "ut these categories do not do #ustice to his later analysis of Mills% career.
).n fact, toard the end of his career, Mills certainly approached the ideal type &oroit*
calls the antisociologist, ho Does a functional allegiance . . . to a set of ideas that is
outside the control system of sociology.D +
'lthough &oroit* has never published the concept .%m about to 2uote no, . distinctly
remember the conversation in hich he distinguished beteen eight, si3teen, and
tenty6four hour a day sociologists )a temporal rather than a spatial distinction+. &e did
not mean simply to ma!e a 2uantitative distinction, to count the number of hours a day a
person devoted to professional or! and use that number as a :variable; hich might
predict something else about people ho so spent their time. &e meant, more
imaginatively, to distinguish beteen different orientations to the organi*ed profession
of sociology, different ays of letting it invade and ta!e over ones life or, conversely,
ays of !eeping the potentially corrosive effects of sociological thin!ing ithin limts.
That is: hen people ta!e up a line of or!, one aspect of the :ta!ing up; is deciding
ho far to allo its demands to intrude on your life. Perhaps very little: members of
some occupations )prison convicts are a good e3ample+ try hard to !eep their or! from
invading their personalities and constricting their lives. <ther !inds of or!, hoever,
ma!e more substantial invasions , hether or not they are elcome. Wor! may fill your
time, as the families of doctors and layers, ith good reason, complain. More to the
point of &oroit*%s distinction, or! can become the ma#or focus of your attention,
ta!ing over emotions, fantasies, dreams, providing the metaphors hich shape your
vie of the orld.
Wor! fills the consciousness of many scholars and thin!ers, dominating their inner
lives. That is hat interests &oroit*: 9oes your intellectual or! shape your a!ing
thoughtsA 9oes it ta!e over your dreamsA 9oes it become the ay you see the orldA
9o you use its language to describe events and peopleA Some sociologists see
sociologically, filtering everything through that lens. <thers stop seeing that ay at five
ocloc!. 'nd some, a fe, are possessed totally 1their refle3es and dreams are
sociological.
Thin!ing about Mills turns us aay from &oroit*%s spatial metaphor, and its
identification of Mills as an occupationalist, and toard his temporal metaphor. Mills is
perhaps better described as a tenty6four hour a day sociologist, one ho thought
sociologically, sa the orld sociologically, dreamed sociologically.
"eing such a person in a time of professional change creates distinctive problems. There
is a strong sense in hich the tenty6four a day sociologist is too sociological for the
organi*ed discipline. .nterpreting the events of daily life in a university department or
research institute as sociological phenomena is not palatable to people ho run such
institutions or to those ho live by them and profit from them for, li!e all institutions,
universities and institutes have sacred myths and beliefs hich their members do not
ant sub#ected to the s!eptical sociological vie. So the institutional settings a tenty6
four hour a day sociologist finds himself in ill not be, as for Mills they certainly ere
not, hospitable to his version.
Mills: professional man2uEF"ig Thin!er
Mills anted very much to be a professional )not in the speciali*ed sense &oroit*
delineates but in the looser, commonsense version+, to be part of the everyday, ongoing
business of the discipline. &e made great efforts to do hat it too! to reap the reards
of being a ell1integrated professional: the reputation, the good position in a great
university, the salary that ent ith it. &e even or!ed, in a ay that only &oroit*s
revealing dissection of his motives and actiivities could ma!e intelligible, on Paul
/a*arsfelds pro#ects, trying to run large1scale survey operations and produce the
reports to sponsors that they re2uired. That style of or! as not congenial to Mills. &e
chafed under the discipline and the responsibility to outsiders it entailed. "ut he did it,
ith the help of some devoted assistants0 &oroit* singles out $ose 7oldsen,
especially, as someone ho made it possible for Mills to survive in this !ind of or! as
long as he did.
Perhaps as a result of his ambivalence about hether to be an engaged political thin!er
or a professional sociologist, Mills never did hat he ould have had to do to ma!e the
sociological orld accept him as a topnotch professional. &is research, even in such
ma#or or!s as White Collar and The Poer 5lite, not even in his most conventionally
sociological research monograph, The 4e Men of Poer, seldom displayed the tight
coupling of assertion and evidence the sociological orld of his time re2uired of :real
research.; &oroit*s analyses of these or!s ma!es clear ho cavalier Mills could be
in putting together empirical reality and his on ideas. &e as often led, by the
prospect of rhetorical flourish or a fine1sounding phrase, to assert hat the materials
he had at hand did not arrant.
4or did he refrain from doing the things that !ept that orld from accepting him fully.
Temperamentally a smartass and :difficult,; he didnt do hat the people ho
controlled the reards he so much anted re2uired of him. 8or a long time he got aay
ith it. 5ven though he mouthed off to his professors as an undergraduate, they all
rote strong recommendations on his behalf so that he could get into the graduate
program at Wisconsin. &e refused to ma!e the changes his dissertation committee
insisted on, but they finally gave him his degree anyay. &e missed deadlines for
research reports and did not do the research /a*arsfeld had contracted for and then put
him in charge of, but he managed to !eep his #ob at Columbia.
's sociology evolved and became more and more :professional,; it focused
increasingly on its on autonomously defined and, in the strict sense, esoteric
2uestions, 2uestions hich arose in the conte3t of the history of the discipline rather
than that of the 2uestions of the day. 'nd one of the orst of Millss sins, from the
perspective of the scientifically mobile profession, as that he did not deal ith those
2uestions, or not very much. &e dealt ith the 2uestions he thought ere important. .t is
a to!en of his intellectual poer that he could ma!e such a mar! on the sociology of his
day hen its leaders found his concerns so uncongenial.
We can return to the 2uestion: in &oroit*s hours6a6day typology, hich !ind of
professional as MillsA Though . guessed #ust above that he as a tenty6four hour
sociologist, its not so clear. 'nd here is here an ambiguity perhaps arises in
&oroit*s analysis. Mills as certainly a si3teen hour sociologist1one ho too! the
4e =or! Times apart ith a scissors every day in order to file the resulting confetti in
appropriate sociological categories. "ut his case suggests another typological
dimension, not fully accounted for in 'n 'merican (topian )though perhaps captured in
the notion of the antisociologist+, in hich the desire to be a "ig Thin!er, to loo! the
part and be recogni*ed as one by other "ig Thin!ers, became a ma#or focus of his effort.
)Capitali*ing the phrase has a somehat satiric overtone, as . mean it to. There as an
element of posturing in Mills activity hich &oroit* ma!es clear and hich, at this
remove, ma!es you onder ho he could have been so naive and unself6conscious
about it.+
The "ig Thin!ers for Mills, the men )and his heroes ere, of course, all men, thus
reflecting the times as ell as his on undoubtedmachismo+ he anted to be li!e or
surpass, too! on the "ig Guestions: the direction of history, the deep fractures of class
and ideology that gave an age its distinctive character. &is heroes ere, preeminently,
Ma3 Weber and >arl Mar3, as they so often are for people ho ant their names
inscribed in the history of intellect and ideas. This tendency in Mills thought ent off
the deep end in the last years of his life, hen he planned gigantic, undoable
comparative sociologies of the entire orld.
The "ig Thin!er dimension is, perhaps, orthogonal to the hours6a6day dimension. <ne
doesnt preclude the other. )We might thin! of $obert 5. Par! as someone ho had
somehat similar desires, though he !ept them to more modest dimensions, thin!ing of
the sociologist not so much as a "ig Thin!er as a "ig $eporter, someone ho studied
the ma#or trends of modern society.+ "ut the desire to play the part, to be that !ind of
person, certainly interacts ith the hours6a6day style. Wanting to be recogni*ed as a "ig
Thin!er ma!es one sensitive to the opinions of non6professionals, hich in turn ma!es
it imperative or at least desirable to thin! in short6run terms. Professional "ig Thin!ers
have to respond to the events of the day, the nes, ith opinions and analyses. They
have to >no What .t 'll Means and have an opinion on every sub#ect. ' "ig Thin!er
can never say, as a social scientist might, :. dont !no; or :Thats out of my field.;
Professional "ig Thin!ers of this !ind are, in effect, nespaper or maga*ine columnists,
hose readers loo! to them for direction. ' successful contgemporary practitioner of the
style is, . suppose, 7arry Wills, ho manages a highly successful scholarly career, is
ell1respected by historians, political scientists, and literary scholars, and yet deals
ith current events routinely in a syndicated column )and does not affect the "ig
Thin!er style personally+. Mills never found so successful an accomodation.
Mills: Man at the intellectual heart of things
.n an odd ay, Mills vie of the organi*ation of intellectual life coincided ith that of
5dard Shils, hose thin!ing as otherise so different from his and hose revie of
The Sociological .magination in 5ncounter as one of the most vicious denunciations
in the history of the discipline of one of the best boo!s the discipline ever produced.
What the to agreed on1and it is one of the signs of Mills closet elitism hich
&oroit* brings to the surface, though he doesnt remar! on it1as the importance of
the :center,; as opposed to hat Shils called the :periphery; )though it has alays been
clear that hat he really meant as the provinces+. 8or Shils, the center is the place
here ma#or social values are concentrated, here legitimate authority resides. the place
to hich the provinces loo! for guidance, the place ith a numinous aura of the holy. .n
his hands, the emphasis on the center is, as he ould no doubt proudly insist,
profoundly conservative.
8or Mills, the emphasis is somehat different and, of course, not conservative. 8or him,
the center is here its happening, here the "ig .deas come from, here the ma#or
advances in thought and culture are made. The center is here you must be if you ant
to ta!e part in the important intellectual debates of your time. .f you ant to be an
intellectual somebody, you must have access to the center, must be there.
8or Mills, the center as 4e =or!, hich perhaps it might have seemed to someone
coming from a small city in Te3as, and as it mostly did to serious intellectuals of his
generation, herever they came from. .n fairness, this vie, hich in the face of the
institutional and geographical changes in 'merica in the last forty years, no seems
only 2uaint, still had some truth left in it during the years of Mills active career. Ma#or
maga*ines ere published in 4e =or!, it as the center of serious boo! publishing, a
somehat incestuous intellectual orld operated from there, "roaday had not yet lost
its place as the center of 'merican theater.
<ne of the oddities of Mills professional life, hich can only be accounted for by his
firm belief that you had to be in 4e =or! to be an important intellectual, as that,
though he as treated badly, even shabbily, at Columbia, though he as not alloed to
teach graduate students, even at the height of his reputation1nevertheless he ould not
leave 4e =or!, so deep as his belief in the myth of 4e =or! as the center of
'merican culture, his belief that you had to be there to be in touch ith the main
currents of intellectual, political and cultural life. &e seems to have thought that to
move, say, to Chicago, here he had friends )Milton Singer, ho had !non him in
Te3as, and perhaps 9avid $iesman, ho might ell have thought him a perfect recruit
for the faculty of the (niversity of Chicago Colleges innovative multidisciplinary
program in social science+ ould have left him outside the magic circle. 'nd so he
thought of himself as ronged, because he could not get the one university #ob he really
anted, hich as to be a :real; professor at Columbia.
&e loo!ed to the circle around the left intellectual maga*ines of the day )9issent,
Commentary, Politics, The 4e /eader+ centered in 4e =or! for an intellectual orld
to belong to, a orld hich ould validate his claim to be an important intellectual.
This orld seemed to him far removed from the university orld, though it as not all
that removed, as the eventual settling of so many of its ma#or figures in professorships
demonstrated. Still, it is the loo!ing to this orld hich most mar!s him as parta!ing in
some part of the antisociologist.
What as perhaps saddest about Millss belief in the center and disdain for the
provinces as that, even as he lived and or!ed, the hole thing as brea!ing don.
Though, as . said, there as a time hen the myth as more or less true, from the
8ifties on the cultural and intellectual life of the country became far less centrali*ed.
Shifts in population, the estard tilt that made /os 'ngeles and San 8rancisco ma#or
financial, intellectual, and artistic centers, the rapidly increasing ease of communication
via long6distance phones, more rapid mail, and the increasing dependence on the
airplane for the movement of people and things1all these made it increasingly easy for
people to be important cultural actors hether or not they lived and or!ed in 4e
=or!.
So it became less and less true that 4e =or!, or any other single place, as :the
center,; in the sense that Shils had described. What replaced such a center as a
netor! of regional communities of intellect and art. The netor! itself as the
:center,; or as much of a center as there as, rather than any of its nodes. To ta!e an
e3ample . am familiar ith, as late as ?@H-, 'merican theater as as centrali*ed in 4e
=or! as it still is in /ondon or Paris: to ma!e a career as an actor, director, or designer,
you ent to 4e =or!. .f you anted the play you had ritten to be a hit you ent
there to find a producer ho ould ma!e your dream come true by producing your play
on "roaday.
Since the 8ifties, hoever, the ma#or development in 'merican theater has been the
groth of regional theater. The ma#or developments have not happened in 4e =or!,
but in San 8rancisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and a netor! of smaller, active,
urban theater orlds. The three ma#or 'merican playrights of the Seventies and
5ighties have been 9avid Mamet )ho got his start in Chicago+, Sam Shepard )much of
hose ma#or or! as ritten and premiered in San 8rancisco+, and 'ugust Wilson
)ho became !non hen he or!ed in Minneapolis6St. Paul and later moved and
continued to or! in Seattle+.
<nce there is no center, only a netor!, you can no longer situate yourself in the center,
because there is no center to do that in. .t is not #ust that you neednt live in 4e =or! to
be a central figure in the intellectual orld. $ather, living in 4e =or! no longer has
anything to do ith being central. .t is a ma#or irony of Mills life that he did not foresee
that he could have ta!en the #obs offered to him outside 4e =or! and sacrificed
nothing in centrality.
8urther, the intellectual center he anted to be part of as, from the point of vie of the
orld of professional sociology to hich, remember, he also anted to belong, not the
center. 8or many years, the un2uestioned center of 'merican sociology as at ??,I 5.
H@th Street, the social science building of the (niversity of Chicago. That uni2ue
dominance ended ith World War ... 'mong the claimants to the succession ere
Columbia )the agon Mills hitched his star to+, but it as only one of eight or ten
)&arvard, Michigan, Wisconsin, and "er!eley, among others, had as good a claim as
Columbia+ and only a claimant, never the actual successor to Chicago1the position of
undisputed leader no longer e3isted to occupy.
Mills: Personal Troubles and .nstitutional Change
Mills troubles ere the personal side of a shift, in the field he had ta!en as his on, to a
professionalism and scientism that had no room for the !ind of or! and career he
anted to do and have. 'merican sociology ent, for a hile, don the road laid out by
the pioneers ho produced The 'merican Soldier and similar or!s that purported to
turn sociology, finally, into a real science. .t turned its bac!, for a hile, on the road of
Weber and Mar3. These pioneers didnt succeed in their venture. The results that such
real science ought to produce still elude their successors, and Mar3 and Weber and the
big thin!ing that they e3emplified is stronger than ever. "ut the pioneers did succeed in
turning the part of sociology Mills anted to inhabit into a place he could not live in,
though he could not leave it either.
.n the same ay, he anted to be at the center of a orld that as coming to have no
center of the !ind in hich he envisioned being a ma#or actor. The brea!don of 4e
=or! as the intellectual center of the country produced that irony.
So Mills unhappy career and the rec!ed personal life that accompanied it, as .rving
/ouis &oroit* has laid them out in 'n 'merican (topian, embody his on dictum. .t
is one of the many virtues of the &oroit* biography to !eep both elements1the
personal and the institutional1in focus throughout.
8<<T4<T5S


.rving /ouie &oroit*, C. Wright Mills: 'n 'merican (topian )4e =or!: The 8ree
Press, ?@JK+.
C. Wright Mills. The 4e Men of Poer: 'mericas /abor /eaders )4e =or!:
&arcourt, "race and Co., ?@LJ+0 White Collar: The 'merican Middle Classes )4e
=or!: <3ford (niversity Press, ?@H?+0 and The Poer 5lite )4e =or!: <3ford
(niversity Press, ?@HI+.
C. Wright Mills, The Sociological .magination )4e =or!: <3ford (niversity Press,
?@H@+.
&oroit* has dealt ith the professionali*ation of sociology in a number of places. See,
for instance, :5stablishment Sociology: The Malue of "eing Malue68ree,; pp. ?H@6?IN
in his Professing Sociology)Chicago: 'ldine Publishing Co., ?@IJ+, and other essays in
that boo!.
7eorge >ubler, The Shape of Time: $emar!s on the &istory of Things )4e &aven:
=ale (niversity Press, ?@I,+, pp. JN6JJ.
&er ideas are laid out in Mari*a 7. S. Peirano, :The 'nthropology of 'nthropology:
The "ra*ilian Case,; )unpublished Ph. 9. dissertation, &arvard (niversity, ?@J?, and in
several of the essays in her (ma 'ntropologia no Plural: TrOs 53periOncias
ContemporPneas )"rasQlia: 5ditora (niversidade de "rasQlia, ?@@,+.
Bean6Michel Chapoulie, D/a seconde fondation de la sociologie franRaise, les 5tats6(nis
et las classe ouvriEre,D $evue 8ranRaise de Sociologie K, )?@@?+, pp. K,?6KIL.
Chapoulie%s argument is considerably more comple3 and sophisticated than the simple
summary . have made of it.
Thomas >uhn, The Structure of Scientific $evolutions )Chicago: (niversity of
Chicago Press, ?@N-+, pp. KH ff.
.rving /ouis &oroit*, DMainliners and Marginals,D pp. ?@H6,,- in his Professing
Sociology, op. cit. The reference to The Sociological .magination is on p. ,?I.
See the description of the antisociologist in DMainliners and Marginals,D pp. ,?,6?L.
Mills fits the description 2uite ell.
&oroit*, hen . consulted him for a citation to this idea, thought that it as in the
essay #ust cited, but couldn%t find it there. .n fact, there is one sentence in hich it is
mentioned: DThe mainline members of a scientific community embrace both those ho
believe in sociology as an J6hour a day profession and those ho believe in it as a ,L6
hour a day occupation.D ),-I+ "ut the point is not developed.
&oroit*, C. Wright Mills, op. cit., pp. J- ff.
5dard Shils, :.maginary Sociology,; 5ncounter)Bune, ?@I-+, pp. NN6J-.
5dard Shils, Center and Periphery )Chicago: (niversity of Chicago Press, ?@NH+,
passim.
The orld of regional theater is described in &oard S. "ec!er, Michal McCall, and
/ori Morris, :Theatre and Communities: Three Scenes,; Social Problems ,I )'pril,
?@J@+, pp. @K6??,.