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Talcott Parsons: An Intellectual Biography
Abstract
The American sociologist Talcott Parsons was often accused of being an overly abstract, even apolitical thinker, remote in Harvard's ivory tower. The controversial Parsons, in fact, emulated his mentor, the venerable Max Weber, in at least two respects: as a scholar he practised Wertfreiheit (scientific professionalism) and as a political activist he worked for the preservation and expansion of democracy. In this 2002 text, Uta Gerhardt traces this double commitment and links Parsons's scholarship to his politics. Utilizing rich archival material, she examines four periods in Parsons's intellectual life in the context of American history and society. From the New Deal and the rise of German fascism to the Second World War, through the McCarthy era and the Civil Rights movement, Parsons's overriding agenda was to develop both a sociological understanding and a defense of the development of modern democracy.
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“However, Parsons did not create this fourfold division himself, but took it from one of the most influential political thinkers of the British colonial period of the Victorian era-Herbert Spencer.”
From Defining and Measuring Human Development: A Genealogical Analysis of the UNDP’s Human Development Reports (2023) · cites this paper as Gerhardt 2002
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gerhardt, U.
- Affiliations
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Gerhardt, Uta
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2002-10-10
- OpenAlex
- W4302571727
- Cited by
- 287
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 211 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.41
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › German Social Sciences and History
- Keywords
- Talcott Parsons, Max Weber, sociology and politics, democracy, New Deal, German fascism, World War II, McCarthy era, civil rights movement, American sociology
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