Obituary

Abstract

It is with great sadness that I report that one of the contributors to this volume, Marc Steinberg, died of pancreatic cancer before this volume was published. His essay that appears here, “Coercion in the Cradle,” was the last thing he wrote before he passed.Marc Steinberg was a distinguished and incredibly creative historical sociologist at Smith College. He was a student of Charles Tilly at the University of Michigan. His early work was at Clark College. In his career, he received no fewer than four prizes from the American Sociological Association for his work. Most remarkably, these prizes came from three different sections of the ASA: Culture, Economic, and Comparative-Historical. His final essay was published in Development. It is unusual for a sociologist to achieve distinction in this many subspecialties, especially specialties as different as Culture and Economic. This speaks to the range and power of his work.With the exception of his last book, on the Catholic sexual-abuse scandal, all of his work was on labor and social conflict in Victorian Britain. Some of the dullest books in the library are on nineteenth-century English class conflict. Steinberg brought a fierce originality to this well-worn material. His book on rhetoric in strikes created a bold new theory of conflictual discourse. Instead of treating ideas as “cultural resources” which can be used as motivational tools, he treated worker and manager speech as chaotic, ambiguous expressions in a world of dozens of potential interpretations. Changing seas of meaning open up unique opportunities for a critical word or idea to carry the day in popular debate. No one had ever treated conflict speech like this. But once he made his point, it was clear he was right.His work on forced labor, represented by his essay in this volume, was a breakthrough in the understanding of labor and development. Development sociologists always thought that industrial/factory regimes had free labor markets. Steinberg found that bound labor, and legal coercion to serve particular employers, were widespread in Victorian Britain. There was no slave periphery and free core. Forced labor was common everywhere.He was a beloved and dedicated teacher. He was even a popular administrator. He was invited to serve no fewer than three non-consecutive terms as chair of his department. For many chairs, once the department gets rid of them, everyone else is glad they are gone.Honored by his peers. Loved by his friends. Trusted by his department. Idolized by students. His mentor, Charles Tilly, was much the same way. Most of Tilly’s students struggled to follow in the footsteps of the great man. Marc Steinberg epitomized all that Charles Tilly valued as a historical sociologist.He will be much missed.