The Decomposition of Sociology

USA

One of the more foreceful and interesting contributions to this literature in recent years has been Irving Louis Horowitz's The Decomposition of Sociology, which deserves to be widely read by British, as well as American sociologists ... the book is intended to give sociology a good shaking, as well as to reach out to wider liberal publics in American society ... This is a good book precisely because it fails to conform to the standards of objectivity and fair-mindedness laid down by the American Sociological Association. If one ignores the polemical content, it also exemplifies a style of essay writing which is virtually extinct on this side of the Atlantic, but is particularly good for generating ideas, and making these accessible to a wider audience.