C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist known for his sharply critical analyses of power and for urging sociology toward a more publicly engaged, historically grounded practice. In The Sociological Imagination (1959) he argued that the discipline's task is to connect personal troubles to broader public issues and historical structures, a stance he set against both abstract grand theory and narrow empiricism. In The Power Elite (1956) he argued that a relatively small, interlocking group of military, corporate, and political leaders had come to dominate decision-making in American society, a thesis that made him one of the most influential and contested critics of mid-century American sociology's consensus assumptions.
Facts
Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionAnalyzed the concentration of power in American society in The Power Elite and advocated public, political engagement by intellectuals over disinterested observation; popularized the term "New Left". 1 Notable WorkThe Sociological Imagination 1 Connections
Associated With
Source C. Wright Mills (Wikipedia)
Source C. Wright Mills (Wikipedia)
Practices Studied
Source C. Wright Mills (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
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Source C. Wright Mills (Wikipedia)Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articleQuote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
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.
Sources
1. C. Wright Mills (Wikipedia)
WikipediaOpening sentence (birth date)
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.
Opening sentence (birth year)
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.
Opening sentence (death date)
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.
Opening sentence (death year)
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.
Early life section, opening sentence
C. Wright Mills was born in Waco, Texas, on August 28, 1916.
Later life section, death sentence
In 1962, Mills suffered his fourth and final heart attack at the age of 45, and died on March 20 in West Nyack, New York.
Opening sentence (nationality)
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.
Lead paragraph, first paragraph
Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journals, and is remembered for several books, such as The Power Elite, White Collar: The American Middle Classes, and The Sociological Imagination, which was in 1998 named by the International Sociological Association as the second most important sociological book of the 20th century.
Lead paragraph, second paragraph
It was Mills who popularized the term "New Left" in the U.S., in a 1960 open letter "Letter to the New Left".
Associated With: Columbia University, Article text
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.
Associated With: University of Chicago, Article text
In 1949, Mills and Harper moved to Chicago so that Mills could serve as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
View the Source 2. New World Encyclopedia: C. Wright Mills
New World EncyclopediaArticle text, subfield stratificationQuote, Article text, subfield stratification
Influenced by Marxist ideas and the theories of Max Weber, Mills was highly critical of capitalism, bureaucracies, and elite social classes, particularly in the United States.
Wikidata: C. Wright Mills
Wikidata Q312837, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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