Erich Fromm and Global Public Sociology

Abstract

Erich Fromm’s contribution to public sociology around the world has largely been forgotten as Burawoy highlighted C. Wright Mills, David Riesman, WEB Du Bois and Jane Adams as canonical figures. This book puts the story of Fromm’s sociological training with Alfred Weber, key role in the critical sociology of the early Frankfurt School, influence on C. Wright Mills, David Riesman and early sociological Marxism back on our historical awareness. The book outlines Fromm’s major contributions to sociological theory and public sociology, theorizes how his optimal marginality created his activist and public intellectual career, tells the story of how he became a forgotten public sociologist, narrates his activism in the 1960s and evaluates how his public role improved but also created limitations to his work. We also offer a reformulation of his psychosocial ideas first outlined in Escape from Freedom (1941) but updated in the context of a global Fromm revival to help us understand global Trumpism, the current crisis of democracy and rise of authoritarianism and narcissism of both the right and the left.