Editor’s Introduction: The Symposium on American Sociology

Abstract

The late Irving Louis Horowitz, whose Transaction Publishers produced The American Sociologist from 1987 through 2007, suggested that we bring out symposia in the journal. For this reason, among others, I am very happy to present to readers the set of papers that follows. I’m sure that Irving would feel likewise, given his passion for sociology and his concern about its prospects (best articulated in his book, The Decomposition of Sociology, which is cited by some of the authors here). Special thanks to Steve Turner, who first suggested this project, and to our quartet of commentators: Katelin Albert, Peter Baehr, Neil Gross and Eleanor Townsley. Having heard earlier versions of their papers at last summer’s American Sociological Association conference, I know how deeply they care about the issues raised in Steve’s book. Steve, of course, as the author and instigator, deserves the opportunity to “bat last” and offer a rejoinder. I would also like to join the conversation. Rather than enter the give-and-take of the five papers that follow, however, I will offer some independent reflections arising from my own reading of American Sociology: From Pre-Scientific to Post-Normal as well as from my own experience of studying and practicing sociology for several decades. I was deeply affected by some of the events that Steve Turner describes, such as the extremely tough market conditions that resulted in me teaching on a part-time and temporary basis, without health benefits or pension savings, for the better part of a decade, mostly in the Boston area. In some respects, this was an unusually rich experience, since I taught at diverse institutions, ranging from two community colleges to several relatively small state colleges and to large public and private universities. But it was an experience of professional marginality (e.g., I was generally not allowed to attend department meetings) and insecurity that has helped me understand the struggles of many non-tenure-track colleagues in the field today. It was also an era in which sociology became highly politicized, not only in terms of its intellectual perspectives but also in terms of interpersonal relations. Happily, the situation has improved, and the process by which that came about is perhaps another historical narrative waiting to be written. Am Soc (2015) 46:1–10 DOI 10.1007/s12108-015-9262-0