Robert Bierstedt (1913–1998) was an American sociologist who often wrote about sociological theory, culture, and constitutional law. He was a native of Burlington, Iowa, and graduated in philosophy from the University of Iowa in 1934. He received a master's degree in philosophy in 1935 and a doctorate in sociology in 1946 from Columbia University.
He headed the department of sociology at City College of New York and at New York University before becoming emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.[1] He was a student of the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin when he was a visiting graduate student at Harvard University during the 1930s. Bierstedt served as vice-president of the American Sociological Association when Sorokin was elected president.
Bierstedt was a longtime director of the American Civil Liberties Union, serving as chairman of its academic freedom committee and the church-state committee in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, he was a former director of the American Council of Learned Societies, a federation of scholarly groups focused on the humanities, and president of the Eastern Sociological Society. In his 1959 presidential address "Sociology and Humane Learning" to the Eastern Sociological Society he argued for the role of debate in sociology and the importance of what he referred to as the "theoretic bias" in interpreting social phenomena.
Bierstedt was a rationalist, critiquing what he saw as the prevalent empiricism of his time. In a paper read before the Illinois Academy of Science in 1949, he argued:
"Aristotle's Politics is one of the classic works of Western civilization not because of what it tells us about the electoral machinery of the Greek city states in the fourth century before Christ, but because of its observations on the origins and functions of government."[2]
He also held Fulbright Senior Lectureships at Edinburgh University and the London School of Economics.
He wrote several books, including The Social Order, Power and Progress: Essays on Sociological Theory and American Sociological Theory, and published many papers and essays in several sociological, anthropological, and literary journals.
He died on September 8, 1998, at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, at 85.
^Williams, Monte (17 September 1998). "Robert Bierstedt, 85, Sociologist Interested in Constitutional Law". New York Times. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
^Bierstedt, Robert (1949). "A Critique of Empiricism in Sociology". American Sociological Review. 14 (5): 584–592. doi:10.2307/2086646. ISSN 0003-1224. JSTOR 2086646.
RobertBierstedt (1913–1998) was an American sociologist who often wrote about sociological theory, culture, and constitutional law. He was a native of...
of English Literature, London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource RobertBierstedt, American Sociological Theory: A Critical History (Academic Press,...
Pennsylvania Railroad; Graham (Yale 1897) became a lawyer in New York City. RobertBierstedt writes that Sumner preached two sermons every Sunday at the Church...
Bhambra, British sociologist Krishna Bhattachan, Nepalese sociologist RobertBierstedt, American sociologist Norman Birnbaum, American sociologist Margunn...
1086/224621. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Bierstedt, Robert (24 September 2013). American Sociological Theory: A Critical History...
with students and faculty. Many of his critics, such as sociologist RobertBierstedt, argue that his literature contains a pessimistic connotation and that...
2005 Adele Mellen Prize for Contributions to Scholarship, and the 1988 Bierstedt Award in Sociology from the University of Virginia. He has authored numerous...
federal election." German Politics 20.1 (2011): 92–106. Schoen, Harald, and Robert Greszki. "A Third Term for a Popular Chancellor: An Analysis of Voting Behaviour...
|work= ignored (help) Bierstedt, Robert (1978). "Sociological Thought in the Eighteenth Century". In Bottomore, Tom; Nisbet, Robert (eds.). A History of...
resources. Scholz rejected a plan made by Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to deliver 100 Marder Infantry...
April 2017. Hecking, Claus; Schultz, Stefan (29 April 2022). "(S+) Wie Robert Habeck die heimische Ökostromindustrie hochpäppeln will". Der Spiegel (in...
Ribeiro (Brazilian dubber of many actors like Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey and Robert Downey Jr., and Yusuke Urameshi from the anime Yu Yu Hakusho) and Wendel...
Internet Archive Online at Internet Archive. Online at Internet Archive Bierstedt, Robert. "A Medievalist's Medievalist," The Saturday Review, August 15, 1953...
taken on numerous positions on corporate boards, including the following: Robert Bosch GmbH, Member of International Advisory Committee (since 2011) WEPA...
Federal Republic of Germany: The End of an era edited by Eva Kolinsky Paxton, Robert; Hessler, Julie (January 2011). Europe in the Twentieth Century. Cengage...
v t e PDS Speaker: Gregor Gysi Members: Bierstedt Bläss Böttcher Bulling-Schröter Einsiedel Elm Enkelmann Fuchs Gysi Hartmann Heuer Heym Höll Jacob Jelpke...
and 1980s defended several prominent dissidents, including Rudolf Bahro, Robert Havemann, Ulrike Poppe, and Bärbel Bohley. In addition to his legal work...
2016, he chaired the Robert Bosch Expert Commission to Consider a Realignment of Refugee Policy, an expert group convened by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. In...
Uprising day alongside Sikyong Lobsang Sangay in Dharamshala. Alongside Robert Badinter and Karel Schwarzenberg, she became one of the first signers of...
York); 1 edition (September 30, 1994). Sleight, A. W.; Gillson, J. L.; Bierstedt, P. E. High-temperature superconductivity in the barium plumbate bismuthate...
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