The Americanization of Social Science: Intellectuals and Public Responsibility in the Postwar United States

1 Introduction; 2 The Postwar Campaign for Scientific Legitimacy; 3 Quantitative Methods and the Instutionalization of Exclusivity; 4 Social Theory and the Romance of American Alienation; 5 Theories of Mass Society and the Advent of a New Elitism; 6 Fads, Foibles, and Autopsies: Unwelcome Publicity for Diffident Sociologists; 7 Pseudoscience and Social Engineering: American Sociology's Public Image in the Fifties; 8 The Perils of Popularity: Public Sociology and Its Antagonists; Conclusion The Legacy of the Scientific Consensus

David Paul Haney is an Adjunct Professor at Austin Community College and St. Edward's University.

"A wonderful social history of sociology, and at the same time a sociological analysis of the period of the consolidation of what Pierre Bourdieu would call a "field." Michael Burawoy "This is an important and timely work... [W]hile it is excellent as an intellectual history of the sociological discipline from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, its importance in illuminating questions of the public role of intellectuals in a modern democratic society gives it a far wider significance... This is a fluent, well-constructed, soundly researched and informative work that fills in an important but little-understood aspect of postwar American social, cultural and intellectual history." Metapsychology Online "Haney makes a valuable and thoughtful contribution to our discipline's understanding of its own history of public engagement and the dilemmas that emerge from professionalization. Well-written and carefully researched, Haney's book gives us a comprehensive overview of post-war American sociology with an emphasis on the ways that the discipline attempted to overcome its relative marginalization within the North American higher education system and broader intellectual culture." Canadian Journal of Sociology (Online) "[V]ery readable...The author's documentation of the debate over sociology's appropriate identity from the 1930s to the 1960s provides rich quotes illustrating the professional arguments about sociology's purpose. Drawing on strong research, Haney deftly argues through the voices of major spokesmen... Recommended." CHOICE, December 2008 "[E]ngaging, well-written... Haney has made a valuable contribution to the history of mid-twentieth-century American sociology."- The Journal of American History, December 2008 "Haney demonstrates how sociology was remade in a self-conscious effort to insulate the discipline from public discussion of social issues. His arguments...are developed intelligently using new as well as familiar sources... The most compelling theme