Synopsis
"The extraordinary C. Wright Mills was an intellectual hero of the New Left, a model of the engaged academic. This volume of his letters and writings provides a fascinating insight into Mills as a person—as a family man and a friend—as well as a thinker. Mills packed so much into his terribly short life, and young people today should find inspiration in his enormous energy, his breadth of interest, and his political boldness."—Howard Zinn, Boston University
"This carefully and lovingly edited volume is bound to revive interest in the work and life of one of the most creative radical intellectuals of the postwar years."—Lewis A. Coser, Boston University
"C. Wright Mills was a passionate public citizen, and therefore, he wrote to be read beyond the academy. He succeeded, making many non-tenured people think, me included. This book further illuminates the life-force within this professor beyond borders."—Nat Hentoff, author of Living the Bill of Rights
"C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings is an invaluable guide to the thought and sensibilities of one of the greatest sociologists of the twentieth century. This book is a must for sociologists, social science students and historians."—Saul Landau, Hugh O. La Bounty Chair of Applied
Interdisciplinary Knowledge, California Polytechnic University
"The personal testimony of a courageous American thinker will afford younger readers a direct look at our past, and perhaps teach them—as Mills did for many of us—that living fully requires thinking largely."—Norman Birnbaum, Georgetown University Law Center
"Mills was among the most intellectually engaging of American social scientists, and he deserves our continuing attention. As these letters and autobiographical essays bring out, he exemplified both a highly personal perspective and a commitment to issues of basic public importance. He saw the connections between biography and intellectual insight, and in this wonderfully edited collection, his writings demonstrate a clarity of perception that adds to our understanding of both his work and his period." —Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council
John B. Judis
The anxious, conformist 1950's, it now appears, were a high-water mark in American social criticism from David Riesman, William F. Buckley Jr. and Dwight Macdonald to James Baldwin, Paul Goodman and, of course, C. Wright Mills. . . . Mills's view of his work as art and literature probably helped him to attain a certan objectivity even in the midst of his indignation.