Norman Birnbaum

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Norman Birnbaum (born July 21, 1926 in New York City , New York ; died January 4, 2019 in Washington, DC ) was an American sociologist , publicist, and political advisor .

Life

Norman Birnbaum's grandfather, who came from Poland, was a house painter , his father was a teacher . His Jewish parents are described as "politically engaged". Birnbaum was born in Harlem , New York , where he grew up. He graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in sociology . Birnbaum taught at Amherst College , Oxford and the London School of Economics before joining the law faculty at Georgetown University .

His fundamentally critical attitude towards political power did not prevent Birnbaum from working as a political advisor alongside his academic work. He worked for Robert and Edward Kennedy , for the US National Security Council , for the United Auto Workers and for the German Greens , he supported the presidential campaigns of Edward Kennedy in 1980 , Jackson , Carter and Cranston, and he was a founding member of the Campaign for America's Future ". Birnbaum was also chairman of the “Policy Advisory Council” of the “New Democratic Coalition”.

As a publicist, Norman Birnbaum co-founded the New Left Review , he edited the Partisan Review and was co-editor of The Nation and the papers for German and international politics . Since June 2014 he has also published regularly on NachDenkSeiten , which are co-edited by Albrecht Müller , who is his friend .

In the last years of his life, Birnbaum retired to a retirement home in New York City. His memoirs "From the Bronx to Oxford and not quite back" (dt .: "From the Bronx to Oxford and not all the way back") published in 2018. The trend towards right-wing political views was in Europe and the United States him cause for concern, but not to pessimism.

Norman Birnbaum was married twice, to Nina Apel and Edith Kurweil. He had two daughters: Anna Birnbaum died in 2011, while the philosopher Antonia Birnbaum, born in Oxford in 1960, lives and teaches in Paris .

Fonts (selection)

  • Norman Birnbaum: The Intellectuals in Current United States Politics . In: Journal of Politics . tape 2 , no. 2 , 1955, ISSN  0044-3360 , p. 118-132 , JSTOR : 24221021 .
  • Norman Birnbaum: The sociological study of ideology (1940-60). A trend report and bibliography . Blackwell, Oxford 1960 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum: The Crisis of the Industrial Society . In: edition suhrkamp . No. 386 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972 (English: The crisis of industrial society . 1969. Translated by Waltraud Stein, Klaus Figge).
  • Norman Birnbaum: Communist China's policy toward her minority nationalities, 1950-1965 . 1970, OCLC 16619544 (English, plus Diss., St. John's University 1970).
  • Norman Birnbaum, Gertrud Lenzer: Sociology and religion: A book of readings . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1969, OCLC 851104249 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum: Toward a critical sociology . Oxford University Press, New York 1971, ISBN 978-0-19-501502-7 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum, Hans Peter Dreitzel: Beyond the crisis . Oxford University Press, London 1977, OCLC 797524878 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum: Social structure and the German Reformation (=  Dissertations in sociology ). Arno Press, New York 1980, ISBN 0-405-12952-1 (English, plus dissertation, Harvard University, 1957).
  • Norman Birnbaum: West Germany's Flick Affair: Herr Kohl Meets His Watergate . In: The Nation . No. 1 , January 12, 1985, p. 9–12 (on the Flick party donation affair ).
  • Norman Birnbaum: The radical renewal. The politics of ideas in modern America . Pantheon Books, New York 1988, ISBN 0-394-52315-6 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum: How New the New Germany? In: Salmagundi . No. 88/89 , 1990, ISSN  0036-3529 , pp. 234-263 , JSTOR : 40548478 . - Norman Birnbaum: How New the New Germany? (Part 2) . In: Salmagundi . No. 90/91 , 1991, ISSN  0036-3529 , pp. 130-178 , JSTOR : 40548276 . - Norman Birnbaum: Postscript to "How New the New Germany?" In: Salmagundi . No. 90/91 , 1991, ISSN  0036-3529 , pp. 292-296 , JSTOR : 40548295 .
  • Norman Birnbaum: Searching for the light. Essays on thought and culture . Oxford University Press, New York 1993, ISBN 1-4294-1090-6 (English).
  • Norman Birnbaum: After progress. Penultimate remarks on socialism . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-421-05515-7 (English: After Prograess. American social reform and European socialism in the twentieth century . 2001. Translated by Suzanne Gangloff, Angela Schumitz).
  • Norman Birnbaum: The great disenchantment . In: Sheets for German and international politics . October 1, 2018, p. 61–66 ( blaetter.de [accessed April 28, 2019]).
  • Norman Birnbaum: From the Bronx to Oxford and not quite back . Vellum, Washington, DC 2018, ISBN 0-9986433-5-1 (English).

literature

  • Andrew Gamble: Norman Birnbaum, 1926-2019 . In: The Political Quarterly . tape 90 , no. 1 , 2019, ISSN  1467-923X , p. 5-5 , doi : 10.1111 / 1467-923X.12653 ( wiley.com ).
  • Bettina Gaus: Constantly critical - and open. Norman Birnbaum on his 90th birthday . In: Sheets for German and international politics . No. 7 , July 1, 2016, p. 35–36 ( blaetter.de [accessed April 27, 2019]).
  • Georgetown Law: In Memoriam: Professor Norman Birnbaum. January 11, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019 (American English).
  • Stefan Kornelius: The man with the X-ray vision. More restless between the continents: On the death of the American sociologist and left-wing intellectual Norman Birnbaum . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 7, 2019, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  • The Nation: Farewell, Norman Birnbaum, 1926–2019 . January 9, 2019, ISSN  0027-8378 ( thenation.com [accessed on 27 April 2019]).
  • Harry Nutt: A left scout. On the death of US political scientist Norman Birnbaum . In: Berliner Zeitung . January 9, 2019, p. 25 .
  • Bernd Pickert: Obituary for Norman Birnbaum: A clear visionary . In: The daily newspaper: taz . January 6, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed April 27, 2019]).
  • Harrison Smith: Norman Birnbaum, left-wing sociologist and journalist with the Nation, dies at 92 . In: Washington Post . January 6, 2019 ( washingtonpost.com ).
  • Jürgen Trittin: Realism with a wide horizon. Untouchable left: On the death of Norman Birnbaum . In: Sheets for German and international politics . No. 2 , February 1, 2019, p. 89-91 ( blaetter.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Pickert: Obituary for Norman Birnbaum: A clear visionary . In: The daily newspaper: taz . January 6, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed April 27, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Bettina Gaus: Constantly critical - and open . In: Sheets for German and international politics . July 1, 2016, p. 35–36 ( blaetter.de [accessed April 28, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b c Georgetown Law: In Memoriam: Professor Norman Birnbaum. January 11, 2019, Retrieved April 28, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ Stefan Kornelius: The man with the X-ray vision . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 7, 2019, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed April 28, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Jürgen Trittin: Realism with a wide horizon . In: Sheets for German and international politics . February 1, 2019, p. 89–91 ( blaetter.de [accessed April 28, 2019]).
  6. ↑ a b James K. Galbraith: Norman Birnbaum: The restless pilgrim . In: Sheets for German and international politics . April 1, 2018, p. 119–123 ( blaetter.de - review).
  7. ↑ James K. Galbraith: The Anxious Pilgrim. In: Dissent Magazine. February 9, 2018, accessed April 28, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Antonia BIRNBAUM. Université Paris 8th Department of Philosophy, accessed on April 28, 2019 (French): "BIRNBAUM Antonia MC-HDR Philosophy allemande modern et contemporaine Philosophy de l'art Théories de l'émancipation"
personal data
SURNAME Birnbaum, Norman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist, publicist and political advisor
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 2019
Place of death Washington, DC