Robert Alexander Nisbet (; September 30, 1913 – September 9, 1996) was an American sociologist, a professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban dist ...

, and an Albert Schweitzer Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Life

Nisbet was born in

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in 1913. He was raised with his three brothers and one sister Woods, Thomas (2005-12-05
Twilight of Conservatism
, ''

The American Conservative ''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...

'' in the small California community of Maricopa,McWilliams, Susan (2010-02-01
"Hometown Hero"
''

'' where his father managed a lumber yard. His studies at

culminated in a Ph.D. in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

in 1939. His thesis was supervised by Frederick J. Teggart. At Berkeley, "Nisbet found a powerful defense of intermediate institutions in the conservative thought of 19th-century Europe. Nisbet saw in thinkers like

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and

Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wo ...

—then all but unknown in American scholarship—an argument on behalf of what he called 'conservative pluralism.'" He joined the faculty there in 1939. After serving in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, when he was stationed on Saipan in the Pacific Theatre, Nisbet founded the Department of Sociology at Berkeley, and was briefly Chairman. Nisbet left an embroiled Berkeley in 1953 to become a

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at the

, and later a

. Nisbet remained in the University of California system until 1972, when he left for the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. Soon after, he was appointed to the

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

Chair at

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

. He was elected to the

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in 1972 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1973. On retiring from Columbia in 1978, Nisbet continued his scholarly work for eight years at the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. A ...

in Washington, D.C. In 1988, President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

asked him to deliver the

Jefferson Lecture The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished ...

in Humanities, sponsored by the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. He died, at 82, in Washington, DC.

Ideas

Nisbet's first important work, ''The Quest for Community'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 9531969), claimed that modern social science's individualism denied an important human drive toward community as it left people without the aid of their fellows to combat the centralizing power of the nation-state. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' columnist

Ross Douthat Ross Gregory Douthat (born 1979) is an American political analyst, blogger, author and ''New York Times'' columnist. He was a senior editor of ''The Atlantic''. He has written on a variety of topics, including the state of Christianity in Americ ...

called it "arguably the 20th century's most important work of conservative sociology." Nisbet began his career as a leftist but later confessed a conversion to a philosophical conservatism. While he consistently described himself as a conservative, he also "famously defended abortion rights and publicly attacked the foreign policy of President Ronald Reagan." He was a contributor to ''

Chronicles Chronicles may refer to: * ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible * Chronicle, chronological histories * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis * ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed * '' The Idh ...

''. He was especially concerned with tracing the history and impact of the

Idea of Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...

. He challenged conventional sociological theories about progress and modernity, insisting on the negative consequences of the loss of traditional forms of community, a process that he believed was greatly accelerated by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. According to British sociologist Daniel Chernilo, for Nisbet, "The sociological interest in the formation of modern society lies in whether and how it can re-invigorate forms of communal life and, if not, in understanding what will be the consequences of such failure." Nisbet, thus, "inverts what had been until then the mainstream proposition that society was more important, both historically and normatively, than community." Chernilo also critically observed that Nisbet's "argument on the Great War orld War Ithat marks the transition from community to society offers a one-sided view of the historical process as moving unequivocally towards a decaying condition."Chernilo, “Social Change,” 329.

Bibliography

Books

* 1953.
The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom
' * 1966.
The Sociological Tradition
' * 1968. ''Tradition and Revolt: Historical and Sociological Essays'' * 1969. ''Social Change and History: Aspects of the Western Theory of Development'' * 1970. ''The Social Bond: An Introduction to the Study of Society'' * 1971. ''The Degradation of the Academic Dogma: The University in America, 1945–1970'' * 1976. ''Sociology as an Art Form'' * 1973. ''The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought'' * 1974. ''The Sociology of Emile Durkheim'' * 1975. ''The Twilight of Authority'' * 1980. ''History of the Idea of Progress'' * 1983. ''Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary'' * 1986. ''The Making of Modern Society'' * 1986. ''Conservatism: Dream and Reality'' * 1988 ''The Present Age'' * 1988. ''Roosevelt and Stalin: The Failed Courtship'' * 1992. ''Teachers and Scholars: A Memoir of Berkeley in Depression and War''

Articles

"Foreign Policy and the American Mind"
''Commentary'' (September 1961, pp. 194–203). *
"The New Despotism"
''Commentary'' (July 1976). * * * *
"Was There an American Revolution?,"
''The American Conservative,'' August 3, 2012.
"social science,"
''Britannica Academic.'' (Primary Contributor)

References

External links

Works by Robert Nisbet
at JSTOR *
Robert Nisbet and Our Continuing Quest for Community
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nisbet, Robert 1913 births 1996 deaths American Enterprise Institute American sociologists Columbia University faculty People from Los Angeles People from Maricopa, California University of California, Riverside faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni United States Army personnel of World War II Members of the American Philosophical Society