Robin Murphy Williams (October 11, 1914 – June 3, 2006) was an American sociologist who is primarily known for identifying and defining 15 core values that are central to the American way of life.
Life
Williams was born on October 11, 1914, in the city of
Hillsborough, North Carolina
The town of Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina, United States and is located along the Eno River. The population was 6,087 in 2010, but it grew rapidly to 9,660 by 2020.
Its name was unofficially shortened to "Hillsb ...
. He graduated from
North Carolina State College
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...
in 1933 at the age of 19 before going on earn an M.A. at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1939 and his PhD from the same establishment in 1943.
Following the work and studies he did on soldiers during the Second World War,
Williams went on to take up a role as a professor at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where he taught from 1946 to 1985.
In 1990 he joined the
University of California at Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
, where he would continue to publish books until the very end of his life. His sister Helen Coble reveals that his final publication was made when he reached the age of 89. Williams died at the age of 91.
Career/works
As
Philip Kasinitz
Philip Kasinitz (born September 18, 1957) is an American sociologist. He is currently a Presidential Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center where he has chaired the doctoral program in Sociology since 2001.
Kasinitz graduated Boston ...
states "From his earliest academic work to his chairing the committee in 1989, Robin Williams Jr insisted on confronting the centrality of race in the U.S society." Fresh out of Harvard University, Robin Williams found his way to the war torn battlefields from where he would begin his analysis on the reasons that push soldiers to fight in the war.
This would give him the sufficient data needed for his first publication ''The American Soldier: adjustment during army life.'' In this work he comes to the realization that what pushes man to participate in the violence of war is not the protection of the abstract notion of a nation, but rather the concrete idea which is direct protection of his comrades in the battlefield and the indirect protection of their loved ones at home. "People fought to save their buddies, because of relational solidarity," The study offered key findings that "essentially created the social science foundations for the way military infantry are trained.
"
The elaboration of Robin William's ''12 core American Values'' remains Perhaps his most influential and pivotal work with regards to the effect on the sociological spheres. Robin William's established what he believed encompassed the 9 core values that drove the American individuals in 1970 before adding 3 more in 1975. He presented them in this manner: Equal opportunity, achievement and success, material comfort, activity and work, practicality and efficiency, progress, science, democracy and enterprise and finally freedom.
Williams proceeded by adding these core values after 1975: religiosity, education, religious love and monogamy.
These values would go on to be an important part of the sociological approach of the American population, earning substantial space in manuals and other books alike.
However, it would not be without criticism. Indeed, Williams' theory has received criticism for the lack of inclusion of the different races and ethnicities which are an integral part of the American culture which, however, do not comply with the same principles of religiosity, for example.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Robin Murphy
1914 births
2006 deaths
American sociologists
Cornell University faculty
North Carolina State University alumni
Harvard University alumni
Presidents of the American Sociological Association