The Americanization of social science : intellectuals and public responsibility in the postwar United States / David Paul Haney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haney, David Paul, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sociology--Study and teaching--United States.

Sociology.

Sociology--United States--History--20th century.

Sociologists--United States.

Sociologists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this, a unique history of the America's postwar intellectual, David Paul Haney outlines the development of sociology as a discipline and why, given its focus of study, it failed to develop into a force in the intellectual currents of the United States. Arguing that sociologists attempted to develop both a science and an instrument for the spread of humanistic concern about society, Haney shows how both attempts failed to connect sociology with larger questions of policy and social progress.

Contents:

Introduction

The postwar campaign for scientific legitimacy

Quantitative methods and the institutionalization of exclusivity

Social theory and the romance of American alienation

Theories of mass society and the advent of a new elitism

Fads, foibles, and autopsies: unwelcome publicity for diffident sociologists

Pseudoscience and social engineering: American sociology's public image in the fifties

The perils of popularity: public sociology and its antagonists

Conclusion: the legacy of the scientific identity.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-275) and index.

ISBN:

9781282047419

1282047418

9781592137152

1592137156

OCLC:

317153984