Peter Blue

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Peter Blue

Peter Michael Blau (born February 7, 1918 in Vienna ; † March 12, 2002 in New York City ) was an American sociologist of Austrian origin.

Life

Blau was a Jewish Austrian. Shortly after graduating from high school, German troops marched into Vienna. When trying to flee from the Nazis across the Czech border, Blue was caught. He was held in a prison camp near the border for two months until a good-natured German officer released him there. In 1939 he first emigrated to France , where he was brought to Bordeaux by the French army to process grapes there. From here he went to Le Havre , from where he wanted to translate to the United States. In Le Havre he met some of the Elmhurst theological college graduates . Blue himself was always an atheist . In 1942 his parents were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp .

After receiving his US citizenship, he took part in the war in Europe as a member of the army from 1943 to 1945, for which he received a military award.

Scientific career

Blue was in Le Havre by graduates of Elmhurst College , a scholarship . In New York he met Paul Lehman , the son of Elmhurst College President, his future mentor and foster father.

He completed his college studies in May 1942 with the title BA .

In 1952 he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City for Ph. D. , taught from 1953 to 1970 at the University of Chicago and then as a professor of sociology until his retirement in 1988 again at Columbia University.

His focus was on organizational sociology, especially the sociology of bureaucracy , from where, however, his contributions to the theory of exchange worked far into American and European sociology. He also made contributions to general sociology , such as social advancement .

In 1974, Blau was elected the 65th President of the American Sociological Association . In 1975 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1980 to the National Academy of Sciences and 1996 to the American Philosophical Society .

Fonts (selection)

Web links

Wikibooks: Sociological Classics / Blau, Peter M.  - Learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Michael Blau, professor emeritus of sociology . In: University Gazette , May 8, 2002.
  2. His publication Exchange and Power in Social Life is counted among the main works in sociology, cf. Dirk Kaesler , Ludgera Vogt (ed.): Main works of sociology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 396). Kröner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-520-39601-7 , pp. 44-47.
  3. Member History: Peter M. Blau. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 5, 2018 .