The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright MillsHere are 23 essays, interviews, and public letters representing the best of C. Wright Mills's "politics of truth." The first collection of Mills's writings to be published since 1963, these essays show how America's best known sociologist grew into a representative for dissenters in Europe, Latin America, and Europe, and was posthumously declared one of the three most influential figures in the international Left by the CIA. First published in Evergreen Review, Harper's, The Nation, Dissent, and New Left Review, these out-of-print and hard to find writings show Mills's growth from academic sociologist to intellectual maestro in command of a mature style, in search of an independent radical public to oppose the drift toward permanent war. Seminal papers including "Letter to the New Left" appear alongside notably prescient but lesser known meditations like "Are We Losing Our Sense of Belonging?" Historians interested in United States foreign policy and in the Latin American Left will find Mills's cogent and probing thoughts on these subjects, sociologists and engaged members of the citizenry who analyze the relationship between culture and politics will find no less incisive essays on these topics. John Summers provides both a new introduction to this book, including an overview of Mills' life and career, as well as annotations that restore each piece's context. |
Contents
| 3 | |
The Powerless People The Role of the Intellectual in Society | 13 |
The Intellectual and the Labor Leader | 25 |
Sociological Poetry | 33 |
Contribution to Our Country and Our Culture A Symposium | 37 |
On Intellectual Craftsmanship | 43 |
Thorstein Veblen | 63 |
IBM plus Reality plus HumanismSociology | 79 |
A Pagan Sermon to the Christian Clergy | 163 |
The Man in the Middle | 173 |
The Big City | 185 |
Culture and Politics The Fourth Epoch | 193 |
The Cultural Apparatus | 203 |
The Decline of the Left | 213 |
On Latin America the Left and the US | 223 |
Soviet Journal | 235 |
Are We Losing Our Sense of Belonging? | 87 |
The Conservative Mood | 95 |
Mass Society and Liberal Education | 107 |
On Knowledge and Power | 125 |
The Power Elite Comment on Criticism | 139 |
Science and Scientists | 155 |
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American intellectuals American Sociological Review answer become believe belong Booknote capitalist Chakovski circles conservatism conservative countries course criticism Cuba Cubans cultural apparatus cultural workmen debate decisions E. H. Carr economic elite theory epoch essay established experience fact feel freedom going human ideal ideas ideology individual industrial institutions issues Journal knowledge labor leader liberal live Marxism mass media mass society Max Weber means merely milieux military Mills's mind modern moral nation opinion organized Partisan Review policies political Power Elite prestige problem production question radical realism reality reason relevant revolution rhetoric Science Machine scientists sense sensibility Social Science socialist realism Sociological Imagination sociologist Sociology Soviet Union structure theory things Thorstein Veblen tradition types understand United University values Veblen World War Three Wright Mills writing Yankee York