Robert Nisbet was an American sociologist, born in 1913, who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he helped found the sociology department, served as vice chancellor at the University of California, Riverside, and later held the Albert Schweitzer Chair at Columbia University. His 1953 book The Quest for Community argued that modern individualism and centralized state power had eroded the intermediate communities, such as family, church, guild and neighborhood, that once gave social life its meaning, a foundational text in what became known as communitarian social thought. His later book The Sociological Tradition (1966) traced the discipline's major concepts back to a shared reaction against the upheavals of the industrial and French revolutions. Though he began his career on the political left, Nisbet became an influential voice of philosophical conservatism in postwar American sociology. He died in 1996.
Facts
Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountHe was especially concerned with tracing the history and impact of the Idea of Progress. He challenged conventional sociological theories about progress and modernity, insisting on the negative consequences of the loss of traditional forms of community, a process that he believed was greatly accelerated by World War I. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountThe Quest for Community (1953) 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Robert Nisbet
WikipediaLead section
Robert Alexander Nisbet (; September 30, 1913, September 9, 1996) was an American sociologist, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, vice-chancellor at the University of California, Riverside, and an Albert Schweitzer Professor at Columbia University.
Ideas section
He was especially concerned with tracing the history and impact of the Idea of Progress. He challenged conventional sociological theories about progress and modernity, insisting on the negative consequences of the loss of traditional forms of community, a process that he believed was greatly accelerated by World War I.
Life section, birth sentence
Nisbet was born in Los Angeles in 1913.
Ideas section, opening sentence
Nisbet's first important work, The Quest for Community (New York: Oxford University Press, [1953] 1969), claimed that modern social science's individualism denied an important human drive toward community as it left people without the aid of their fellows to combat the centralizing power of the nation-state.
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