Postmodern Cowboy: C. Wright Mills and a New 21st-century Sociology / Edition 1

by Keith Kerr

Overview

More than 50 years ago, C. Wright Mills heralded a new age for sociology for the 1960s and beyond. Yet his forward-looking vision also foretold some of the social conditions we associate, more recently, with postmodern society. This intellectual biography of Mills emphasizes early life experiences that shaped Mills's expansive vision of the future, just as Kerr develops, from Mills, tools for confronting current and looming problems. Drawing upon little-known documents, Kerr expands our knowledge about this leading 20th-century sociologist, and shows how forward-looking Millsian scholarship can enhance the endeavors of sociology today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594515804
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/30/2010
Series:	The Sociological Imagination
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Keith Kerr is Assistant Professor of sociology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. His research interests include social and cultural theory.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xix

1 Introduction 1

2 C. Wright Mills: An American Utopian: Horowitz's Incomplete Biography 9

3 Private Troubles and Public Issues: Sigmund Freud, Alice Miller, and Mills as the "Feminine-Sensitive Boy" 21

Mills: The Forgotten Years 23

The Feminine-Sensitive Boy 25

The Freshman Cadet 32

Family Relations 38

Notes 52

4 Mills the Intellectual 55

Veblen Reincarnate 60

Mills the Pragmatist 64

5 Postmodernity's Texas Roots 69

Mills and the Postmodern Turn 72

Imagination against Empiricism 88

Notes 89

6 The Postmodern Cowboy: A Forward Look at Mills for a New Social Science 91

Rationalization and Structure 94

Rationalization and Self 98

The Iron Cage for the Twenty-First Century 102

Holistic Alternatives to a Pathological State 104

Reflexivity 118

Conclusion 127

Notes 130

References 131

Index 139

About the Author 147