Bennett Berger , editor
Authors of Their Own Lives
Intellectual Autobiographies by Twenty American Sociologists
$37.95, £26.95 paperback
9780520065567
Available Now
503 pages
March 1990, Available worldwide
March 1990, Available worldwide
All students and scholars are curious about the human faces behind the impersonal rhetoric of academic disciplines. Here twenty of America's most prominent sociologists recount the intellectual and biographical events that shaped their careers. Family history, ethnicity, fear, private animosities, extraordinary determination, and sometimes plain good fortune are among the many forces that combine to mold the individual talents presented in Authors of Their Own Lives. With contributions from women and men, young and old, native-born Americans and immigrants, quantitative scholars and qualitative ones, this book provides a fascinating source for students and professional sociologists alike.
Some of the autobiographies maintain their reserve, others are profoundly revealing. Their subjects range from childhood, educational, and intellectual influences, to academic careerism and burnout, to the history of American sociology. Authors stands alone as a deeply personal autobiographical account of contemporary sociology.
Some of the autobiographies maintain their reserve, others are profoundly revealing. Their subjects range from childhood, educational, and intellectual influences, to academic careerism and burnout, to the history of American sociology. Authors stands alone as a deeply personal autobiographical account of contemporary sociology.
"The extraordinary virtue of the Berger collection is that it allows for the first time a number of important, very different types of sociologists to remove their lab coats and speak from the heart. . . . [A] fine book from beginning to end."—Alan Sica, Science
"Bristles with anecdotes—about a woman dean at Yale who had to use the back stairs at a male-only club to attend administrative meetings, and about Justice Louis Brandeis not letting his law clerks (one of whom was the sociologist David Riesman) get married. . . . All these accounts are fragments of social history as well as of sociology."—Paul Thomas, New York Times Book Review
"These engrossing, literate memoirs should delight and inform more than professional sociologists. Scholars with an abiding respect for the great institutions of American higher education . . . will be especially rewarded, as will students of the German emigré experience. . . . Seductive and rewarding."—Christopher Prendergast, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
"Bristles with anecdotes—about a woman dean at Yale who had to use the back stairs at a male-only club to attend administrative meetings, and about Justice Louis Brandeis not letting his law clerks (one of whom was the sociologist David Riesman) get married. . . . All these accounts are fragments of social history as well as of sociology."—Paul Thomas, New York Times Book Review
"These engrossing, literate memoirs should delight and inform more than professional sociologists. Scholars with an abiding respect for the great institutions of American higher education . . . will be especially rewarded, as will students of the German emigré experience. . . . Seductive and rewarding."—Christopher Prendergast, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
CONTRIBUTORS:
Reinhard Bendix
Bennett M. Berger
Jessie Bernard
James S. Coleman
Donald R. Cressey
Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
John Gagnon
Herbert J. Gans
Nathan Glazer
Andrew M. Greeley
Joseph Gusfield
Dean MacCannell
Gary T. Marx
David Riesman
Barbara Rosenblum
Alice S. Rossi
Guenther Roth
Pepper Schwartz
Pierre L. van den Berghe
Dennis Wrong
Reinhard Bendix
Bennett M. Berger
Jessie Bernard
James S. Coleman
Donald R. Cressey
Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
John Gagnon
Herbert J. Gans
Nathan Glazer
Andrew M. Greeley
Joseph Gusfield
Dean MacCannell
Gary T. Marx
David Riesman
Barbara Rosenblum
Alice S. Rossi
Guenther Roth
Pepper Schwartz
Pierre L. van den Berghe
Dennis Wrong
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