C. Wright Mills Through his Letters – His Time in Innsbruck and the Making of The Sociological Imagination

Abstract

In June 1957, C. Wright Mills came to Innsbruck, Austria, by VW Bus with his wife at the time, Ruth Harper Mills, and their daughter, Kathryn. Wright Mills had just completed a year as Fulbright lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. In this article, based on a presentation at the University of Innsbruck, Kathryn Mills discusses her father’s experiences in Austria, his work on The Sociological Imagination, her family’s personal crises in Innsbruck, and her father’s writings on personal trouble and engagement with big issues. The article features quotations from C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings and a passage from The Sociological Imagination .