Howard P. Becker

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Howard Paul Becker (born December 9, 1899 in New York City , † June 8, 1960 ibid) was an American sociologist. He mainly dealt with the sociology of knowledge and religion . He was the 50th president of the American Sociological Association .

An industrial worker from 1913 to 1922, Becker began studying social sciences at Northwestern University ( Illinois ) in 1922 without any formal qualifications. In 1926/27 he was an exchange student at the University of Cologne with Max Scheler and Leopold von Wiese . In 1930 he was at the University of Chicago Dr. phil. doctorate , where he had worked as a lecturer in sociology since 1928. From 1937 Becker was professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin , he also taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University in Cambridge ( Massachusetts ) and theStanford University ( California ), also in Birmingham and Toronto .

After the Second World War, Becker was a representative for the University of Frankfurt am Main , the University of Marburg and other universities in the American Zone of Occupation as part of the Secret Intelligence Service . He encouraged Leopold von Wiese and Max Graf zu Solms early on to revive the German Society for Sociology . He later returned to the University of Wisconsin as a professor. Although he was not born in Europe, Becker was able to speak German. He contributed significantly to the spread of German sociology in the USA.

Becker felt sociologically committed above all to Max Weber , Émile Durkheim , Maurice Halbwachs , Ferdinand Tönnies and Bronislaw Malinowski and was himself an academic teacher of C. Wright Mills . In Germany, the sociologist Hanna Meuter , also a student of Wieses, had lively contact with Becker and his family in the USA (the correspondence is in the Viersen district archive ); she published, among other things, reviews of Becker's works.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Leopold von Wiese: Systematic Sociology. 1932.
  • Social Thought from Lore to Science. 1938.
  • German Youth: Bond or Free. 1946 (German: From the beret the pen wavers. History of the German youth movement. Wiesbaden 1949).
  • Family, Marriage, and Parenthood. 1948.
  • Man in reciprocity. Introductory Lectures on Culture, Society and Personality. Praeger, New York 1956.
  • Sociology as a science of social action. 1959.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Becker, Howard P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Howard Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1960
Place of death New York , USA