1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789000903321

Autore

Geary Daniel

Titolo

Radical ambition [[electronic resource] ] : C. Wright Mills, the left, and American social thought / / Daniel Geary

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-77256-2

9786612772566

0-520-94344-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (291 p.)

Disciplina

301.092

Soggetti

Sociology - United States - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"An Ahmanson Foundation book in the humanities".

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-262) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Maverick on a Motorcycle? The Thought and Times of C. Wright Mills -- 1. Student Ambitions: The Education of a Social Scientist -- 2. What Is Happening in the World Today: Weberian Sociology and Radical Political Analysis -- 3. The Union of the Power and the Intellect: The Labor Movement and Bureau-Driven Social Research -- 4. The New Little Men: 'White Collar' -- 5. The Politics of Truth: 'The Power Elite' and 'The Sociological Imagination' -- 6. Worldly Ambitions: The Emergence of a Global New Left -- Epilogue: The Legacy of C. Wright Mills -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Sociologist, social critic, and political radical C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) was one of the leading public intellectuals in twentieth century America. Offering an important new understanding of Mills and the times in which he lived, Radical Ambition challenges the captivating caricature that has prevailed of him as a lone rebel critic of 1950's complacency. Instead, it places Mills within broader trends in American politics, thought, and culture. Indeed, Daniel Geary reveals that Mills shared key assumptions about American society even with those liberal intellectuals who were his primary opponents. The book also sets Mills firmly within the history of American sociology and traces his political trajectory from committed supporter of the Old Left labor movement to influential herald of an international New Left. More than just a



biography, Radical Ambition illuminates the career of a brilliant thinker whose life and works illustrate both the promise and the dilemmas of left-wing social thought in the United States.