Introduction -- The postwar campaign for scientific legitimacy -- Quantitative methods and the institutionalization of exclusivity -- Social theory and the romance of American alienation -- Theories of mass society and the advent of a new elitism -- Fads, foibles, and autopsies: unwelcome publicity for diffident sociologists -- Pseudoscience and social engineering: American sociology's public image in the fifties -- The perils of popularity: public sociology and its antagonists -- Conclusion: the legacy of the scientific identity
Summary
A controversial explanation for sociology's isolation from American society
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-275) and index