Social Science in the Crucible

Social Science in the Crucible PDF

Author: Mark C. Smith

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 9780822314974

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The 1920s and 30s were key decades for the history of American social science. The success of such quantitative disciplines as economics and psychology during World War I forced social scientists to reexamine their methods and practices and to consider recasting their field as a more objective science separated from its historical foundation in social reform. The debate that ensued, fiercely conducted in books, articles, correspondence, and even presidential addresses, made its way into every aspect of social science thought of the period and is the subject of this book. Mark C. Smith first provides a historical overview of the controversy over the nature and future of the social sciences in early twentieth-century America and, then through a series of intellectual biographies, offers an intensive study of the work and lives of major figures who participated in this debate. Using an extensive range of materials, from published sources to manuscript collections, Smith examines "objectivists"--economist Wesley Mitchell and political scientist Charles Merriam--and the more "purposive thinkers"--historian Charles Beard, sociologist Robert Lynd, and political scientist and neo-Freudian Harold Lasswell. He shows how the debate over objectivity and social purpose was central to their professional and personal lives as well as to an understanding of American social science between the two world wars. These biographies bring to vivid life a contentious moment in American intellectual history and reveal its significance in the shaping of social science in this country.

The Uneasy Partnership

The Uneasy Partnership PDF

Author: Gene Martin Lyons

Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation

Published: 1969

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1610446658

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This comprehensive work—relevant to the major issue of the relation of social knowledge to political power—argues for strengthening the role of the social sciences in the federal government. It calls for a central organization for the social sciences and for better integration of research within the federal agencies. It underscores the various factors that might help to bring about this goal.

When Good Government Meant Big Government

When Good Government Meant Big Government PDF

Author: Jesse Tarbert

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0231548486

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The years after World War I have often been seen as an era when Republican presidents and business leaders brought the growth of government in the United States to a sudden and emphatic halt. In When Good Government Meant Big Government, the historian Jesse Tarbert inverts the traditional story by revealing a forgotten effort by business-allied reformers to expand federal power—and how that effort was foiled by Southern Democrats and their political allies. Tarbert traces how a loose-knit coalition of corporate lawyers, bankers, executives, genteel reformers, and philanthropists emerged as the leading proponents of central control and national authority in government during the 1910s and 1920s. Motivated by principles of “good government” and using large national corporations as a model, these elite reformers sought to transform the federal government’s ineffectual executive branch into a modern organization with the capacity to solve national problems. They achieved some success during the presidency of Warren G. Harding, but the elite reformers’ support for federal antilynching legislation confirmed the worries of white Southerners who feared that federal power would pose a threat to white supremacy. Working with others who shared their preference for local control of public administration, Southern Democrats led a backlash that blocked enactment of the elite reformers’ broader vision for a responsive and responsible national government. Offering a novel perspective on politics and policy in the years before the New Deal, this book sheds new light on the roots of the modern American state and uncovers a crucial episode in the long history of racist and antigovernment forces in American life.

Making Choices, Making Do

Making Choices, Making Do PDF

Author: Lois Rita Helmbold

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2022-10-14

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1978826435

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Working-class white and black women practiced the same Depression survival strategies across race. Archived 1930s interviews with 1,340 Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and South Bend women, and letters from domestic workers articulate common resourcefulness in employment, housework, and acquisition of relief. Institutionalized racism in employment, housing, and relief, however, assured that Black women worked harder, but fared worse.

Leisure and Liberty in North America

Leisure and Liberty in North America PDF

Author: Pierre Lagayette

Publisher: Presses Paris Sorbonne

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9782840505402

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Depuis Aristote, le loisir est un temps " libre ", c'est-à-dire propice à la réflexion ou à la méditation, ce que les Grecs considéraient comme le bien suprême de notre existence. Le loisir, pour des hommes libres, c'est l'occasion de penser leur liberté, de choisir la manière dont il vont assurer le progrès de leur connaissances (y compris la connaissance de soi), alors même qu'ils sont débarrassés des contraintes de la nécessité : le travail et la réussite sociale. Au fil du temps, se sont greffées à celle de loisir les notions de jeu, d'amusement, ou de récréation. La liberté devient ludique dans ce contexte et l'amusement l'expression d'une libre pratique de la vie en société. Activité autrefois réservée à une élite, le loisir a fini par s'insinuer dans l'ordre social, particulièrement en Amérique du Nord, où il voulait être plus égalitaire et, au cours des siècles, il s'est imposé comme l'un des pivots principaux de l'American Way of Life. Mais aux idéaux originels est venue subrepticement se substituer la logique du gain et de la réussite individuelle. A ceux qui penseraient encore le loisir comme un moyen d'élévation culturelle, l'instrumentalisation des loisirs dans une économie dominée par le profit dément cette idée. Qu'il s'agisse de tourisme, de voyages, de parcs d'attraction, ou plus simplement de cinéma ou de gastronomie, tout est prétexte à exalter la valeur financière du loisir par-delà ses valeurs esthétiques ou morales. Transformé en simple bien de consommation, le loisir ne cesse d'interroger les questions d'environnement, d'identité ethnique, ou de genre. A cet égard peut-on encore le considérer comme un facteur de libération sociale ou culturelle ? Crée-t-il les conditions favorables à la mise en œuvre d'un niveau de liberté, individuelle ou collective, plus élevé ? Il reste que le loisir, malgré ses dérives consuméristes n'en tient pas moins une place grandissante dans l'identité des peuples et dans le flux planétaire des cultures. A ce titre, il nous est aussi vital que le travail dont il est l'inévitable complément.