Stalking the Sociological Imagination: J. Edgar Hoover's FBI Surveillance of American SociologyIt is now common knowledge that the FBI and its long-time director, J. Edgar Hoover, were responsible for the creation of a massive internal security apparatus that undermined the very principles of freedom and democracy they were sworn to protect. While no one was above suspicion, Hoover appears to have held a special disdain for sociologists and placed many of sociology's most prominent American figures under surveillance. Using documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, this volume portrays the FBI's stalking of the sociological imagination, offering a detailed account of its investigations within the context of an overview of the history of American sociology. This groundbreaking analysis of a previously hidden chapter of American intellectual history suggests that the activities of Hoover and the FBI marginalized critical sociologists such as W.E.B. Du Bois and C. Wright Mills, suppressed the development of a Marxist tradition in American sociology, and likely pushed the mainstream of the discipline away from a critique of American society and towards a more quantitative and scientific direction. The author also turns sociology back upon the FBI, using the writings and ideas of the very sociologists Hoover had under surveillance to examine and explain the excesses of the Bureau and its boss. |
Contents
Sociologist beyond the Veil | 11 |
Security MatterC | 33 |
Scientist Statistician | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Stalking the Sociological Imagination: J. Edgar Hoover's FBI Surveillance of ... Mike Keen No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
agent Ameri American Sociological Association American sociology association Black Board Bois's Boston Bufile Bureau File Bureau of Investigation Burgess Chicago School Civil Committee Communist front Communist Party concerning confidential informant contacted copy crime critical Cuba Cuban Cultural Director Edgar Hoover Executive Order 9835 faculty FBI Freedom FBI's Federal Bureau field office FOIA Franklin Frazier Freedom of Information-Privacy Harvard Helen Lynd Helen Merrell Lynd Herbert Blumer HUAC Ibid indicated Information-Privacy Acts Section intellectual interview letter listed Lynd's McCarthyism memo Mills's National Negro noted Ogburn organizations Parsons's passport peace Pitirim political President professor race request Research Robert Lynd Russian Samuel Stouffer scientific scientists Security Index social science society sociological imagination sociologists Sorokin Soviet Union sponsor student subversive surveillance Sutherland Talcott Parsons theory tion Un-American Activities United University of Chicago University Press W.E.B. Du Bois Washington Wright Mills York