Radical Ambition: C. Wright Mills, the Left, and American Social Thought (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520258365)

Sociologist, social critic, and political radical C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) was one of the leading public intellectuals in twentieth century America. Offering an important new understanding of Mills and the times in which he lived, Radical Ambition challenges the captivating caricature that has prevailed of him as a lone rebel critic of 1950s complacency. Instead, it places Mills within broader trends in American politics, thought, and culture. Indeed, Daniel Geary reveals that Mills shared key assumptions about American society even with those liberal intellectuals who were his primary opponents. The book also sets Mills firmly within the history of American sociology and traces his political trajectory from committed supporter of the Old Left labor movement to influential herald of an international New Left. More than just a biography, Radical Ambition illuminates the career of a brilliant thinker whose life and works illustrate both the promise and the dilemmas of left-wing social thought in the United States.

Author: Dan Geary
ISBN-10: 0520258363
ISBN-13: 9780520258365
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 04/14/2009
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 06/26/2009 pg. 17