RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING
My work has been concerned with the social sciences and philosophy. I have not been able to stay in any one social science and have done more reading cross-field than within the subject I happen to teach. Indeed, I have never had occasion to take very seriously much of American sociology as such; in a paper, American Journal of Sociology, September 1943, I have systematically criticized what I take to be its central tradition. In sociology my main impulse has been taken from German developments, especially the traditions stemming from Max Weber and, to a lesser degree, Karl Mannheim. Since beginning an independent teaching career I have developed courses and supervised graduate research in the following fields:
orientation in the social sciences
sociology of knowledge
sociology of communication
social stratification
sociology of occupations and professions
design of investigation in social science
social psychology
In terms of "specialties," such "contributions" as I have made are primarily in the sociology of knowledge, a borderline field of philosophy, psychology, and social science, concerned with the social bases of intellectual and cultural life. Articles documenting this line of reflection have appeared in the American Sociological Review, October 1939, and the American Journal of Sociology, November 1940 and September 1943.
During the last two years I have experimented with essays for the journals of opinion and various "little magazines." This I have done out of interest in the topics discussed, and even more because I wished to rid myself of a crippling academic prose and to develop an intelligible way of communicating modern social science to nonspecialized publics.
My formal training at the University of Texas was primarily in American philosophy and modern logic. I took an M.A. degree in these fields. The men with whose work I spent my time at Texas were the pragmatists, especially Charles S. Pierce and G. H. Mead. My key teacher was George V. Gentry, a student of Mead's. He was my first real intellectual stimulus, and he knows what there is to know of my work at Texas. The second man who was decisive for me at Texas was Clarence E. Ayres, with whom I studied the work of Thorstein Veblen, as well as general economic theory and history.
The only teacher at the University of Wisconsin who was decisive for me was Selig Perlman, with whom I studied institutional and labor economics. He knows of all my work in Madison. I was examined for the Ph.D. in economics, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as the several fields of sociology, especially theory, social psychology, and the history of social thought. My doctorate thesis was entitled "A Sociological Account of Pragmatism: An Essay on the Sociology of Knowledge."
At Wisconsin I came in contact with Hans Gerth, who had been Karl Mannheim's assistant in Germany. We have become research colleagues and collaborators, and through him I have come into what I think is a live and fruitful contact with German sociology and philosophy.
In one way or another, I have been decisively influenced by the six men whom I have listed as "references." I believe them to be in
On April 8, 1945, the Guggenheim Foundation notified Mills that he would receive a grant of $2,500 to fund research during the calendar year of 1946; his manuscript in progress was published as White Collar in 1951.
To Frances and Charles Grover Mills, from Greenbelt, Maryland, dated December 22, 1944
Dear Mother and Dad:
First let me thank you very much for the lovely tie. It is really a honey and I've worn it almost every day since I got it. Freya won't open hers [her present] until Christmas! She'll write later. The other day I got you a year's subscription to a magazine called POLITICS. It is quite left-wing and very stimulating. A very good guide to what is going on in the world. I am sorry as hell that we can't give you all something really nice but God everything is so high, I mean living expenses, we just exist.
About the only thing happening to me is still work, work, and more work. I am writing all the time, trying to get these books thru. I believe that I've already told you that I have delivered a book Gerth and I did to Oxford Press, it ought to be manufactured by next Sept. at the latest.
[51] From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology was published in 1946.
Last week I went up the Hudson River from New York City about 100 miles to see a little school called Bard College. They have offered me a job at $4,000 a year, and they paid for my trip to be interviewed, etc. Despite the increase in pay, I have about decided that I won't take it. You see, the college is like a country club, out in the beautiful woods, but there is no research library there and it takes too long to get to New York; also it is very exclusive (it costs a student about $2,200 a year to go to school there: they only allow 200 students), and I don't like exclusiveness. Why should I waste my time pampering the sons and daughters of plutocrats? To hell with them.
Freya has written you that I am invited to teach two graduate seminars lectures at Columbia University this next summer session for 6 weeks. I get 100 a week for the job and of course a hell of a lot of prestige. I am probably the youngest guy ever to act as associate professor in Columbia.
[52] "It's a hell of a big break for a kid 28 years old. The average age of associate professors is 45," Mills wrote in another letter to his parents (undated).
It is of course one of the three biggest schools in the U.S. So I haven't quite gotten over it yet.I bought a model airplane kit the other day and I am making a little model plane (40 inch wingspread) in order to relax at night. I am also trying to read a little bit of Henry James. All his novels are wonderful.
Pamela and Freya are both well.
My friend, poor Dick Hofstadter's wife [Felice Swados], is dying slowly of cancer. […] Dick is in Buffalo, NY, with her. Poor girl: she had finished one novel and was on another, a very talented and lovely creature.
[53] House of Fury (New York: Doubleday Doran, 1941), which was reprinted as Reform School Girl (New York: Avon Diversity Romance Novel edition, 1948) and made into a movie.
Please know that even tho I don't write often, I think of you both often, that I am well and fairly content in this lousy damn bloodbath of a world. Take care of yourselves.
Yours as ever, with love, MILLS
Felice Swados and Richard Hofstadter were born in Buffalo, New York, and married when they were at the University of Buffalo (now State University of New York at Buffalo). Hofstadter took a leave of absence from his post at the University of Maryland and spent the academic year 1944–45 caring for Felice and their one-year-old son, Dan, in Buffalo, at Felice's parents' home.
[54] Dan Hofstadter is the author of several books, including Temperaments: Artists Facing Their Work (New York: Knopf, 1992), Goldberg's Angel: An Adventure in the Antiquities Trade (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994), and The Love Affair as a Work of Art (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996).
Felice died there on July 21, 1945, at the age of twenty-nine.In 1947, the young father married Beatrice Kevitt, and they remained together until his death in 1970.
[55] Beatrice Kevitt was an editor who worked on several books by Hofstadter, three books by Mills (New Men of Power, The Puerto Rican Journey, and White Collar), and later four books by Theodore H. White, whom she married in 1974. See also Great Issues in American History: From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864–1981, ed. Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter, rev. ed. (New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1982).
Richard and Beatrice K. Hofstadter had a daughter named Sarah Katherine.To Frances and Charles Grover Mills, from Greenbelt, Maryland, dated January 1945, Sunday evening
Dear Mother and Dad:
Thanks a lot for the can of chile; I ate it with great gusto; and it was mighty fine. Very soon, I shall be somewhere which has genuine Mexican restaurants; we are moving to New York City within four months.
Yes, I have accepted a job in New York, right in the middle of Manhattan Island, at $5,000 a year plus $800 extra for this next year for teaching during the summer session. I am to be a Research Associate at Columbia University. That is, I won't teach but will just do research all the time! In the next ten months I will be in complete charge of a research budget of $25,000 for a research job on opinion leaders in a midwestern city, probably Cedar Rapids. I will stay in New York, of course, with only a trip or two out there (expenses paid) to set up the fieldwork and to check on my staff from time to time. This is the offer they made to me yesterday in NY and the chances are that I will take it. However, I am anticipating another offer from Yale, which should pay about the same amount; since I don't know the details of the Yale job yet, I am stalling the decision at Columbia. But I think now it will be Columbia. That is what I've been waiting on and this is it. Within ten days the decision will be made. I shall stay at Md. until the end of this quarter—that would be April first—but would run to New York for one day a week, beginning around February first. I'll have a staff of around 15 interviewers
It was great fun talking to these guys [Robert K. Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld]. I had no idea what they wanted to pay, but they started throwing money around, spent $20 on a dinner for three of us,
[56] In 1945 this was a very expensive meal.
and all that. After they had laid out the job and said: "Well, that's it; we want you. Will you come?" I said (holding myself in with bursting joy at the whole idea; Christ I'd go for food and shelter) anyway I kept the face immobile and just said, "For how much?" They wouldn't say, but replied, "You know what you're worth, name it." To which little Charlie said very quietly, "I won't charge you that much, but I couldn't think of it in terms less than $4,500." Immediately the guy said, "Then your beginning salary will be $5,000," to which the appropriate reply was: "That is closer to what I'm worth." And everybody laughed and felt good. (My salary at Maryland is still just $3,000.)After this $20 meal, we broke up and I went up Fifth Avenue and cut across to Times Square and wandered into a restaurant and ate another huge meal! I didn't realize what I was doing until I was half through with it. It cost me three bucks, but it was worth it.
Well, you see the good blood and bones and brash you all put into me began to come through a little. Incidentally, Columbia's research office is doing a lot of war and direct Army research,
[57] The Bureau of Applied Social Research
so it's absolutely as near draft proof as anything in the US today.Yours in appreciation of good early training and heritage.
Your son,
M.
Charlie M.
[P.S.] The January issue of "politics" has a wonderful cover picture.
[58] The cover picture was a collage of newspaper clippings in the shape of a Trojan horse, with headlines such as "Britain: Tanks Fire on Greek Leftists," "Spitfires Strafe Leftists in Athens," "Freedom of Speech," "Freedom from Fear," and "Freedom from Want."
I met the Italian boy who made it last night.When Oxford University Press announced publication of From Max Weber, the credit in their catalog listed Mills's name before Gerth's. Needless to say, this upset Gerth. Mills wrote to their editor at Oxford, H. T. Hatcher, on February 5, 1945, asking him to correct the order of their names in all future releases concerning the book. Unfortunately, Meyer Schapiro subsequently made the same mistake and listed Mills's name first when—in an essay in politics—he responded to the publication of Gerth and Mills's translation of Weber's "Class, Status, and Party" and the accompanying note on Weber. The issue of credit was a sore point, especially since Gerth had wanted to have sole credit for the long introduction in From Max Weber; Mills had insisted that the introduction represented the thoughts and efforts of both of them and that his own contribution was more than simply writing and organizing what Gerth had to say. Gerth, whose first language was German, had translated the Weber essays into rough English, and Mills had edited the English versions, consulting Gerth in order to assure continued accuracy.
In Schapiro's essay for politics he took issue with the notion that Weber was a prophetic political thinker, stating that Weber feared the left and was drawn to nationalist and strong leaders. Schapiro wrote that if Weber had lived after 1920, "it would have been a cruel dilemma for him whether to accept or reject the man who was re-establishing German power and preparing for a war against the national enemy."
[59] "A Note on Max Weber's Politics," politics 2 no. 2 (February 1945): 44.
In the context of the assassination of Liebknecht, Schapiro stated that "like many others who support the violence of the state against the working-class, Weber laid the responsibility on the victims."[60] Schapiro, "Note on Max Weber's Politics," 47.
To Hans Gerth, from Greenbelt, Maryland, dated February 7(1945), p.m.
Dear Gerth:
Enclosed are advance proof sheets of Schapiro's essay on Weber, which is to be published in politics, presumably in the next issue. You will note that Schapiro has, good God, mixed up the order of our names. I have therefore just written a card to Macdonald telling him to correct the matter. This I cannot understand at all, in view of the fact that the translation as printed in politics clearly reads, "Gerth and Mills." However, the deadline for the issue is Feb. 15th, so I think we have no need to fear that it will not be corrected.[…]
I am sorry Gerth, but I have nothing to do with this; I have never even seen Schapiro, and the piece in politics was, of course, in the correct order. I don't know what I can say beyond that, except that I am very sorry that such an erroneous impression should recur. As you see, I am prompt to correct it.
Now, my suggestion on how to handle the Schapiro essay is this: We need not and must not appear to "champion" Weber, and we cannot write a full length essay for politics, as we have the Oxford Press to think of and the success of our book. Therefore the question is: how can we "defend" ourselves from the thing insofar as it is an attack upon WHAT WE HAVE PUBLISHED ABOUT WEBER? The answer, so far as my spot reaction goes, after only two readings of Schapiro's proofs, is: concentrate on just two points and then refer the readers of politics to the forthcoming book in which these issues are more fully discussed. Above all, I see no need to appear to "fight" with Schapiro. Enclosed therefore please find a rough draft of about one-half or one-third of the "reply." The deadline on the issue is February 15th. We probably can't make that. So, unfortunately, the comeback will have to appear in the issue after the Schapiro piece. Nevertheless, please get back to me as soon as is possible [with] your reaction and emendations and additions to the note I began here.
Finally, Gerth, let me say flatly to you, in view of the recurrence of the mix-up in the order of our names, that I am most sincerely in full and intimate agreement that you are the senior author in all that we have done with Max Weber,
[61] They worked on From Max Weber over a period of five years.
that I am not only content, internally and externally, with being the junior author of the book, but am most grateful to have had the chance to learn what I have of Max Weber while acting as the junior author in collaboration with you. There is really nothing else I can say; but you may be sure that I shall jump to the correction in print and in conversation whenever the occasion to do so arises.Yours as ever,
Mills
[P.S. …]
"Max Weber's Politics—a Rejoinder," by H. H. Gerth, was published in the April issue of politics. In response to Schapiro's comment that Max Weber may have had difficulty deciding whether to support or oppose Hitler, Gerth's rejoinder said, "If we may playfully venture a retrospective prediction about Schapiro's assumed ‘cruel dilemma,’ we feel Max Weber in 1933 might rather have become a colleague of Schapiro's than a Hitlerite." The rejoinder discussed Weber's responses to the politics of his time and ended with this conclusion: "Today Weber may well furnish any party of freedom ‘with a mass of valuable material,’ as the late Nikolai Bukharin has put it. May the reader of our forthcoming volume of translations judge for himself."
[62] politics 2, no. 4 (April 1945): 119–20.
In February of 1945, Mills took on a new project on the topic of small businesses versus big businesses and their respective effects on civic welfare. The Smaller War Plants Corporation was apparently interested in showing the superiority of small businesses in order to fight the trend toward increased economic concentration,
[63] Gillam, "C. Wright Mills," 261.
and they wanted Mills to do the research.To Hans Gerth, from Greenbelt, Maryland, undated (probably February 1945)
10 P.M. Good God! The telephone just rang and it was a guy in the Smaller War Plants Corporation, headed by Maury Maverick. He said (I'm so god damned excited I can hardly write!) two or three guys had recommended me and he wanted me to do a special job for a Senate hearing. To do the study and then appear as an "expert" before the committee hearing on setting up a small business agency on a permanent basis. The hearing will be sometime in April. I'm to see him this Saturday, and if I can, to start work next Monday or Tuesday. Here's what they want: a man to integrate and supervise a spot study on four or five small towns: these towns to be selected with the help of the Census boys in various parts of the US, ranked according to whether small businesses with the owners living there predominate or whether "central office groups" of outside corporations dominate the towns, industry and retail trade. The job is to get hold of the differences between communities characterized by those two general types of industry and business. The time is so short that all they want is the basic
Good night.
As ever,
Mills
PS: After a very careful study I have just discovered that one of the towns is bound to be in Wisconsin very near Madison. See you soon. And thanks for helping me make up my mind in this letter!
Taking a leave of absence from the University of Maryland, Mills moved to New York City in early 1945, with Freya and Pamela joining him a few weeks later. At the time, Daniel Bell and Mills were still on friendly terms, and Bell helped the Millses obtain an apartment on East 11th Street in the same building in which the Bells resided.
Soon afterward, Mills went on the research trip he discussed in the previous letter to Gerth.
To Frances and Charles Grover Mills, from "Washington Airport, 1:10 A.M., Wed.," undated (probably March 1945)
I flew in from Boston this morning, having spent almost one week in New England, mostly in New Hampshire (a lovely state). I'm now waiting for a flight to Atlanta, GA. I'll spend 2 or 3 days there and in Birmingham, and then fly across to Los Angeles. I'll probably have a stop over in Dallas. Maybe an hour, maybe two, not longer, and I won't know how long or on what date. Depends upon time of success in Atlanta and on connections. On airlines today, you've got to take your chances, and even tho' I've got a senatorial priority, generals and admirals outrank me!
From Los Angeles, I fly to Butte, Montana; then to Michigan—several towns there, and then on in to Washington. I've got to get back here before March 28th.
I tried to select a town near San Antonio as one of my stops, but it didn't come out that way. If I get a stop over in Dallas, I'll ring Ursula,
[64] Mills's only sibling.
and also will ring you in San Antonio. But I can't say when it'll be.My work is fascinating and I'm learning a lot—talking with police chiefs, sociologists, Chamber of Commerce secretaries, labor leaders, preachers, etc. I'm all things to all men, but Irish to most. And I'm getting the information the Senate wants. I eat enormous meals and sometimes 5 a day, and sleep 4 or 5 hours. I feel well and all alert and keyed up.
Stopped by to see Freya and Pam in NYC last night (4 A.M.–5:20 A.M.!). They are doing well. And they had good news: my draft board has permitted me to accept the Columbia University job, which begins April 1st. Of course I'd already moved there, but I was worried. I guess this Senate thing impressed them somewhat. Like I told you 3 years ago. I'll sit this one out. It's a goddamned bloodbath to no end save misery and mutual death to all civilized values.
Got to go now.
Good-bye.
Your son,
Charlie M.