The brief rise and early decline of radical sociology at Washington University: 1969–1972

Abstract

The most ambitious effort in this country to build a radical sociology program at a major university took place in the Department of Sociology at Washington University in the late 1960s. For a brief period it appeared that a unique program had been created?a department comprising a broad range of radical scholars. However, by 1972 almost all the radical faculty had either been expelled or had left of their own accord. Similarly, within the American Sociological Association a broad based radical caucus had arisen that eventually evolved into a more narrowly based Marxist Section. The failure to institutionalize radical sociology can be explained, in part, by the internal dynamic of radical movements as well as by the opposition they engender.