Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 - March 20, 1962) was an American sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills was widely published in popular and intellectual circles. journals, and remembered for several books such as The Power Elite, which introduced the term and explained the relationships and class alliances among US political, military, and economic elites; White Collar: The American Middle Classes , in the American middle class; and Sociological Imagination , which presents an analytical model for the interdependence of subjective experience in one's biography, general social structure, and historical development.
Mills was concerned with intellectual responsibility in post-World War II societies, and he advocated public and political engagement over uninterested observations. Mills biographer Daniel Geary writes that Mills' writings have "a very significant impact on the New Left's social movement in the 1960s." Indeed, it was Mills who popularized the term "New Left" in the US in an open letter of 1960, Letter to the New Left .
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Mills was born in Waco, Texas on August 28, 1916. He lived in Texas until he was 23 years old. His father, Charles Grover Mills, worked as an insurance salesman, while his mother, Frances Wright Mills, stayed home as a housewife. His father moved to Texas from his native Florida, and his mother and grandparents were all born and raised in Texas. Her family moves constantly as she grows up and as a result, she leads a relatively isolated life with several ongoing relationships. Mills spends time living in the following cities (in order): Waco, Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Sherman, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. He graduated from Dallas Technical High School in 1934.
Maps C. Wright Mills
Course period
Mills initially attended Texas A & amp; M University but left after the first year and then graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1939 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in philosophy. By the time he graduated, Mills had been published in two leading sociological journals in the US: American Sociological Review and American Journal of Sociology.
While studying in Texas, Mills met his first wife, Dorothy Helen Smith, who was also a student there looking for a master's degree in sociology. He had previously attended Oklahoma College for Women, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce. They married in October 1937. After their marriage Dorothy Helen, or "Freya," worked as a staff member director of Women's Residence Hall at the University of Texas to support the couple while Mills completed her graduation work; he typed and copied most of his work, including his Ph.D. dissertation. There, he meets Hans Gerth, a professor in the Department of Sociology, who became a mentor and friend even though Mills did not take classes with Gerth. In August 1940, Freya divorced with Mills, but the couple married again in March 1941. Her daughter, Pamela, was born on January 15, 1943.
Mills received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1942. His dissertation was entitled "Sociological Account of Pragmatism: Essay on Sociology of Knowledge." Mills refused to revise his dissertation on review. It was then received without the consent of the review committee. Mills left Wisconsin in early 1942 after he was appointed Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Initial career
During his work as Associate Professor of Sociology from 1941 to 1945 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Mills awareness and involvement in American politics grew. Mills befriends historians, Richard Hofstadter, Frank Freidel, and Ken Stampp during World War II. The four academics collaborate on many topics and each writes about many contemporary issues surrounding the war and how it affects American society.
In the mid-1940s while he was still in Maryland, Mills began contributing 'journalistic sociology' and opinion pieces to intellectual journals such as The New Republic, New Leaders, and political , a journal founded by his friend Dwight Macdonald in 1944.
In 1945, Mills moved to New York after obtaining a research partner position at Columbia University's Applied Social Research Bureau. Mills was separated from Freya by that step, and the couple divorced in 1947. Mills was appointed Assistant Professor in the department of sociology of the University in 1946. Mills received a $ 2,500 grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in April 1945 to fund his research in 1946. During At that time, he wrote the White Collar which was finally published in 1951.
In 1946, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology , a translation of Weber's essay written with Hans Gerth, was published. In 1953, the two published a second work, Character and Social Structure: The Psychology of Social Institutions .
In 1947, Mills married his second wife, Ruth Harper, a statistician of the Applied Social Research Bureau who worked with Mills on the New Men of Power (1948), White Collar (1951) ), and The Power Elite (1956). In 1949, Mills and Harper went to Chicago so Mills could serve as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago; Mills resumed teaching at Columbia after a semester at the University of Chicago and was promoted to Associate Professor of Sociology on July 1, 1950. Their daughter, Kathryn, was born on July 14, 1955. Mills was promoted to Professor of Sociology at Columbia on July 1, 1956. From 1956 to In 1957, the family moved to Copenhagen, where Mills acted as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. Mills and Harper split in December 1957, when Mills returned from Copenhagen alone, and he divorced in 1959.
Next year
Mills married his third wife, Yaroslava Surmach, an American artist of Ukrainian descent, and settled in Rockland County, New York in 1959. Their son, Nikolas Charles, was born on June 19, 1960.
In August 1960, Mills spent time in Cuba where he worked on developing his text, Listen, Yankee. He spent most of his time in Cuba interviewing Fidel Castro, who claimed to have read and studied Mills The Power Elite.
Mills is described as a man in a hurry, and apart from his hasty nature, he is widely known for his combat power. Both his private life, with three marriages, a child of each, and some affairs, and his professional life, which involves challenging and criticizing many professors and co-workers, has been characterized as "tumultuous". He wrote a fairly clear essay, though slightly veiled in criticism of the former Wisconsin department chairman, and he summoned the senior theorist there, Howard P. Becker, "really stupid". On one particular occasion, when Mills was honored during a visit to the Soviet Union as a major critic of American society, he criticized the censorship in the Soviet Union through his toast to an early Soviet leader who was "cleansed and killed by the Stalinists." He said, "For the day when the complete works of Leon Trotsky were published in the Soviet Union!"
In one of Mills' biographies by Irving Louis Horowitz, the author writes about Mill's acute consciousness about his heart condition and speculates that it affects the way he lives his adult life. Mills is described as someone who works fast, yet efficiently. It is said to be the result of his knowledge that he will not live long because of his heart health. Horowitz describes Mills as "a man who seeks his fate".
Mills suffered a series of heart attacks throughout his life and his fourth attack caused his death on March 20, 1962.
Influences
C. Wright Mills is strongly influenced by pragmatism, especially the works of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce, and William James. The social structure of Mills' works is largely shaped by Max Weber and Karl Mannheim's writings, which follow Weber's work closely. Mills also recognizes the general influence of Marxism; he notes that Marxism has become an important tool for sociologists and therefore must all be naturally educated on this issue; any later Marxist influence is the result of an adequate education. Neo-Freudianism also helped shape the works of Mills.
Mills was an intense philosophical student before he became a sociologist and his vision of radical and egalitarian democracy was a direct result of the influence of ideas from Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, and Mead. During his time at the University of Wisconsin, Mills was strongly influenced by Hans Gerth, a Professor of Sociology from Germany. Mills gained insight into the European learning and sociological theory of Gerth.
Books
From Max Weber: Essay in Sociology (1946) edited and translated in collaboration with Gerth. Mills and Gerth began to collaborate in 1940, and they selected some of the original German Weber texts and translated them into English. The preface of this book begins by explaining the difference of doubtable meaning that English words give to German writing. The authors try to explain their devotion to being as accurate as possible in translating Weber's writings.
The New Men of Power: The American Labor Leader (1948) studied the "Metaphysical Worker" and the dynamics of the labor leader in collaboration with business officials. The book concludes that the labor movement has effectively abandoned its traditional oppositional role and became at peace with life in the capitalist system. Disarmed by the economic policy of "bread and butter", unions have adopted the role of bending and subordinates in the new structure of American power.
The Puerto Rican Journey (1950) written in collaboration with Clarence Senior and Rose Kohn Goldsen. It documents the methodological study and does not address the theoretical sociological framework.
White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951) offers a rich history of the middle class in the United States and argues that bureaucracy has overwhelmed middle-class workers, robbing all independent thinking and transforming it. to be near-automat, oppressed but cheerful. Mills states there are three types of forces in the workplace: coercion or physical strength; authority; and manipulation. Through this passage, Mills and Weber's thoughts seem to coincide with their belief that the Western Society is caught in the iron cage of bureaucratic rationality, which will lead people to focus more on rationality and less on reason. Mills's fear is that the middle class becomes "politically and culturally weakened", which will allow the shift of power from the middle class to powerful social elites. Middle-class workers receive a considerable salary but have become alienated from the world because of their inability to influence or change it.
Character and Social Structure (1953) written together with Gerth. This is considered his most sophisticated theoretical work. Mills then came into conflict with Gerth, although Gerth positively referred to himself as "an excellent operator, a cocky youth, promising on his making, and Texas cowboy ÃÆ' la ride and shoot." In general, the Character and Social Structure combines social behaviorism and pragmatic personality structures with the sociological structure of Weberian. It centers on roles, how they are interpersonal, and how they relate to the institution.
The Power Elite (1956) describes relationships among political, military, and economic elites, noting that they share the same worldview; it rests on centralizing authority within the American elite. The centralization of authority consists of the following components: "military metaphysics," in other words the military definition of reality; "class identity," recognizing themselves as separate from and superior to the whole society; "interchangeability" (they move within and between the three institutional structures and hold the interlocking position of power in them); cooperation/socialization, in other words, the socialization of new candidates is based on how well they "clone" themselves socially after the established elite. Mills' view of the power elite is that they represent their own interests, which include maintaining a "permanent war economy" to control the ups and downs of American Capitalism and to mask "manipulative social and political ties through the mass media."
The Causes of World War Three (1958) and Listen, Yankee (1960) is an important work that followed. In both, Mills seeks to create a moral voice for society and make the ruling elite accountable to the "public." Although Listen, Yankee is considered very controversial, it is an exploration of the Cuban Revolution written from the point of view of a Cuban revolutionary and is a very innovative writing style for that period in American history.
The Sociological Imagination (1959), considered the most influential book in Mills, describes the mindset for studying sociology, sociological imagination, which emphasizes the ability to relate individual experiences and social relationships. The three components make up the sociological imagination:
- History: why society is what it is and how it has changed for a long time and how history is built in it
- Biology: the nature of "human nature" in society and the type of people living in certain communities
- Social Structure: how various institutional sequences in the function of society, which are dominant, how they stay together, how they may change too, etc.
Mills asserts that an important task for social scientists is "translate personal issues into public affairs". The difference between a problem and a problem is that the problem relates to how a person feels about something while the problem refers to a society affecting a group of people. For example, a man who can not find a job is having trouble, while a city with a massive unemployment rate makes it not just a personal matter but a problem. Sociologists, then, correctly connect their autobiographical and personal challenges to social institutions. Social scientists must then connect these institutions with social structure and place them in a historical narrative.
The Human Image Version: Classical Tradition in Sociological Thinking (1960) done by C. Wright Mills is just an edited copy with the addition of a self-written introduction. Through this work, Mills explains that he believes the use of models is a characteristic of classical sociologists, and that these models are the reason that classical sociologists maintain relevance.
The Marxists (1962) takes an explanation of the sociological model of Images of Man and uses it to criticize modern liberalism and Marxism. He believes that the liberal model does not work and can not create a holistic view of society, but rather an ideology for the middle class of entrepreneurship. However, Marxism may be erroneous in its overall view, but it has a working model for the structure of society, the mechanism of community history, and the role of the individual. One of Mills' problems with the Marxist model is that he uses a small, autonomous unit, which he finds too simple to explain capitalism. Mills then gave a discussion of Marx as a determinist.
Legacy
Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes dedicated his novel The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) to Mills and called it "the true voice of North America, friends and associates in the struggle of Latin America." Fuentes is a fan of Mills's Listen, Yankee and appreciates Mills' insight into what he believes is the experience of Cubans in a revolutionary state.
The legacy of Mills can be greatly felt through the compilation of printed letters and other works called C Wright Mills: Autobiographical Letters and Writings, edited by two children, Kathryn and Pamela Mills. In the introduction to the book, Dan Wakefield states that Mill's sociological vision of American society is one that goes beyond the realm of sociology. Mills presented his ideas as a way to keep American society from falling into the trap of what is known as the "mass society". Many experts argue that Mills' ideas triggered a radical movement of the 1960s, which occurred after he died. His work is recognized in the United States and is also highly regarded abroad, having appeared in 23 languages.
Above all, Wakefield remembers the character of Mills as being surrounded by controversy:
In 1964 the Society for the Study of Social Problems established the C. Wright Mills Award for the book that "most closely exemplifies outstanding social science research and a great understanding of individuals and societies in the leading sociologist's tradition, C. Wright Mills."
Outlook
There has long been a debate about Mills' intellectual views. Mills is often seen as a "Marxist closet" because of its emphasis on social class and their role in historical development and strives to keep the Marxist tradition alive in social theory. However, as often as others, Mills believes that Mills is more closely identified with Max Weber's work, which many sociologists have defined as an example of modern anti-Marxism and sophisticated (and intellectually) modern liberalism. Mills, however, clearly sets a precedent on the social structure depicted by political, economic and military and non-cultural institutions, presented in its mass form as a tool for the purpose sought by the ruling elite, which places it firmly in the Marxist camp rather than Weberian. , so in his classic essay collection, Weber's Protestant Ethics is not included. Weber's idea of ​​bureaucracy as social control internalized by Mills as well as the historicity of his method, but far from liberalism, Mills was a radically culturally forced to distance himself from Marx while "close" to him.
While Mills never embraced the "Marxist" label, he told his closest colleagues that he felt closer to what he saw as the best flow of humanist Marxism flexible than the alternative. He considers himself the "ordinary Marxist" who worked in young Marx's spirit when he claimed in his essay: "Power, Politics, and People" (Oxford University Press, 1963). In a November 1956 letter to his friends Bette and Harvey Swados, Mills declared "in the meantime, do not forget that there is more that is still useful even in Sweezy Marxism type than in all the routines JS Mill puts together."
There is an important quote from the Letter to Tovarich (autobiographical essay) dated Autumn 1957 titled "About Who I Can and How Can I Do It":
These two quotes are chosen by Kathryn Mills for a better acknowledgment of her nuanced thoughts.
It seems that Mills understands his position as closer to Marx than Weber but is influenced by both, as Stanley Aronowitz says in A Mills Revival? .
Mills argues that micro-level and macro-analysis can be linked together by sociological imaginations, allowing their owners to understand the great historical significance in terms of meaning for the inner life and external career of various individuals. Individuals can only fully understand their own experience if they find themselves in their historical period. The key factor is the combination of personal issues with public issues: the combination of problems that occur in the environment and the personal relationships of individuals with others with matters relating to the institution of the historical society as a whole.
Mills shares with Marxist sociology and other "conflict theorists" the view that American society is sharply divided and systematically shaped by strong and powerless relationships. He also shared their concerns for alienation, the effects of social structure on personality, and the manipulation of people by the elites and the mass media. Mills combines such conventional Marxist issues with meticulous attention to the dynamics of personal meaning and small group motivation, a topic of concern to Weberian scholars.
Mills has a very aggressive view of and toward many parts of his life, the people in it, and his works. That way, he is a self-proclaimed outsider.
C. Wright Mills provided considerable studies to the Soviet Union. Invited there, where he was recognized for his criticism of American society, Mills used the opportunity to attack Soviet censorship. He does hold the controversial notion that the US and the Soviet Union are governed by the same bureaucratic power elites and thus constitute a converging society rather than different.
Above all, Mills understands sociology, when approached properly, as an inherent political effort and a servant of the democratic process. In The Sociological Imagination , Mills writes:
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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