Preferred Citation: Mills, C. Wright C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c2000. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7f59q5ms/

 
CHRONOLOGY
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CHRONOLOGY

    August 28, 1916
  • Charles Wright Mills is born in Waco, Texas.
    • 1934
  • He graduates from Dallas Technical High School.
    • 1934–1935
  • Attends Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College.
    • September 1935
  • Enters the University of Texas at Austin.
    • October 1937
  • Mills marries Dorothy Helen Smith (Freya).
    • 1937–38
  • A Charles D. Oldright Fellowship in Philosophy aids Mills's graduate work.
    • 1939
  • Mills obtains both a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Texas (Phi Beta Kappa).
    • September 1939
  • Mills and Freya move to Madison, Wisconsin, where Mills has a research fellowship and enters the doctoral program in sociology at the University of Wisconsin.
    • Summer 1940
  • Freya and Mills separate and obtain a divorce, which becomes final the following February.
    • March 1941
  • Freya and Mills remarry.
    • May 1941
  • Mills completes his course work at the University of
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    Wisconsin and passes his preliminary examination for a doctorate.
    • 1941
  • Mills is appointed associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He and Freya move to Greenbelt, Maryland.
    • September 26, 1942
  • Mills receives a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin after completing his thesis, "A Sociological Account of Pragmatism: An Essay on the Sociology of Knowledge."
    • January 15, 1943
  • Mills and Freya's daughter, Pamela, is born.
    • Early 1945
  • Mills takes a leave from the University of Maryland and is hired as a research associate at Columbia's Bureau of Applied Social Research (BASR), with summer teaching responsibilities at Columbia University. Mills, Freya, and Pam move to an apartment on East 11th Street in New York City.
    • Spring 1945
  • Mills travels to middle-sized cities in the course of his research as a special consultant to the Smaller War Plants Corporation for a congressional study.
    • Summer 1945
  • Mills and Freya separate, and Mills moves to an apartment on West 14th Street on the outskirts of Greenwich Village.
    • 1946
  • Publication of From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, translated and edited by Hans Gerth and Mills.
    • January 1946
  • Mills begins to divide his time between work at the BASR and work on his manuscript in progress for White Collar, which was supported by a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
    • April 1946
  • Mills is appointed assistant professor of sociology at Columbia College; he formally resigns from the University of Maryland and continues working at the BASR.
    • Mid-1946
  • Mills is appointed director of the Labor Research Division of the BASR.
    • February 1947
  • Mills begins teaching at Columbia College.
    • July 1947
  • Mills and Freya obtain a divorce. Mills marries Ruth Harper,
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    and they take a camping trip, mainly in Nevada and California.
    • 1948
  • Publication of New Men of Power, written with the assistance of Helen Schneider.
    • Summer 1948
  • Mills and Ruth take a cross-country trip to California. On the way home they purchase two small islands in Lake Temagami, Ontario, Canada, for $175.
    • Late 1948
  • Mills formally withdraws from work at the BASR.
    • Spring 1949
  • Mills is a visiting professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.
    • Summer 1949
  • Mills and Ruth build a cabin on an island in Lake Temagami, Ontario, where they also stay the following summer.
    • 1950
  • Publication of Puerto Rican Journey: New York's Newest Migrants by Mills, Clarence Senior, and Rose Kohn Goldsen.
    • July 1, 1950
  • Effective date of Mills's promotion to associate professor of sociology at Columbia.
    • Early 1951
  • Mills and Ruth purchase an old farmhouse in Pomona, New York, and begin to rebuild it.
    • June 1951
  • Mills and Ruth take up permanent residence in Pomona, New York.
    • Late summer 1951
  • Mills and Ruth drive cross-country to California and also visit Hans and H I Gerth in Madison, Wisconsin.
    • September 1951
  • White Collar is published.
    • Spring 1953
  • Mills is a visiting professor of human relations at Brandeis University.
    • September 1953
  • Publication of Character and Social Structure: The Psychology of Social Institutions, by Gerth and Mills.
    • Summer 1954
  • Mills and Ruth drive cross-country and work on The Power Elite as resident fellows at the Huntington Hartford Foundation in Pacific Palisades, California.
    • 1954–55
  • Mills lectures at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, New York City.
    • July 14, 1955
  • Mills and Ruth's daughter, Kathryn, is born.
    • ― 346 ―
    January 1956
  • Mills visits Europe for the first time, learning about motorcycle mechanics at a BMW factory in Munich, Germany.
    • April 1956
  • The Power Elite is published.
    • July 1, 1956
  • Effective date of Mills's promotion to professor of sociology at Columbia College.
    • 1956–57
  • Mills, Ruth, and Katie move to Copenhagen, where Mills is a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. Mills and Ruth, sometimes with Katie, travel throughout Europe. Mills goes alone to England and Norway, and with Ralph Miliband to Poland.
    • December 1957
  • Mills and Ruth separate. Mills returns alone to New York City, leasing an apartment from Columbia University.
    • 1958
  • The Causes of World War Three is published.
    • Early 1959
  • The Sociological Imagination is published.
    • May 1959
  • Ruth obtains a divorce from Mills.
    • June 1959
  • Mills marries Yaroslava Surmach, and they move into their new home with Katie in Rockland County, New York. Mills helped design and build the house.
    • September 1959
  • Mills attends an international sociology conference in Stresa, Italy, and tours briefly through Austria, Munich, and London with Yara.
    • January–March 1960
  • Mills teaches a seminar on Marxism at the University of Mexico, living in Cuernavaca, Mexico, with Yara and Katie.
    • April 20–May 20, 1960
  • Mills travels to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the publisher of the Russian translation of The Power Elite, and stops in Copenhagen and London. He interviews Soviet professors and gathers material for "Contacting the Enemy: Tovarich."
    • June 19, 1960
  • Mills and Yaroslava's son, Nikolas Charles, is born.
    • August 8–24, 1960
  • Mills visits Cuba; he interviews Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and many others.
    • November 1960
  • Listen, Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba is published.
    • ― 347 ―
    December 1960
  • Harper's Magazine cover story is an article based on excerpts from Listen, Yankee.
    • Late 1960
  • Mills receives at least one death threat in response to his defense of the Cuban revolution.
    • December 1960
  • A day or two before he is scheduled to debate A. A. Berle Jr. on the topic of U.S. policy toward Cuba on national tv, Mills has a major heart attack.
    • January 1961
  • A lawsuit is filed against Mills and the publishers of Listen, Yankee, alleging libelous comments about certain Cuban businessmen and seeking $25 million in damages.
    • April–August 1961
  • Mills, Yara, Kate, and Nik visit London and tour Europe, especially Switzerland and the Soviet Union, where Mills considers entering a special clinic for heart patients but decides against it.
    • September–December 1961
  • The Millses return to London while considering a per-manent move to England. They spend a month in an apartment near the Swados family in Haut de Cagnes, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France.
    • January 27, 1962
  • The Millses return to West Nyack, New York.
    • March 20, 1962
  • Mills dies of a heart attack in his home.
    • Late March/early April 1962
  • The Marxists, Mills's critical assessment of Marxism, is published.
CHRONOLOGY
 

Preferred Citation: Mills, C. Wright C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c2000. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7f59q5ms/