Arthur Vidich was asked to write the introduction to many books in
the field of sociology - especially ones that focused on his passion for community studies, politics, culture and the role of the intellectual in modern society. Many of his students asked for such favors when publishing their first book but similar requests were made by friends and colleagues who valued his professional opinion. This posting reviews three of the most significant reviews Art prepared for his close friends - Hans Speier, Ahmad Sadri and Rita Caccamo.
Intellectuals as Change Agents
Vidich wrote the introduction to Ahmad Sadri's Max Weber's Sociology of Intellectuals, published in 1992. In it he praised Sadri's gift for bringing "order to a subject that up to now has defied the best efforts of social theorists." Are intellectuals simply the product of the social and economic forces in which they live or can such persons rise above these material distractions and view the world dispassionately? In an age of propaganda driven by the vested interests of power cliques and social and political forces, it is often very difficult to determine the motives of intellectuals within our society. Sadri's book, according to Vidich, expands on Max Weber's theories concerning the role of intellectuals in modern society and establishes an entirely new framework for organizing intellectual traditions. As Vidich explains, Sadri "ingeniously provides a way to differentiate such diverse types as scientists, scholars, theorists, theologians priests, bureaucrats, media specialists, reformers, lawyers and revolutionaries by their attitude and function." While Sadri's writing may at times be ponderous, it is a masterful treatment of the role of intellectuals in modern society. As Vidich concludes, Sadri's "formulation of a heuristic general theory of intellectuals and intelligentsia is independently significant, a major contribution to contemporary social thought."
Community Studies - An Anthropologist's Perspective
Arthur Vidich praised Rita Caccamo's Back to Middletown as one of the finest examples of applying an anthropologist's "outsider perspective" to the critique of American communities. For those familiar with American community studies, the two landmark works by Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture and ten years later, Middletown in Transition (1937) established the first reference points for the decline of small town communities in America. Vidich's own work, Small Town in Mass Society, followed in that tradition so his review of Cacamo's book was more than an academic favor for a colleague. Vidich, trained both as a sociologist and anthropologist, recognized the unique insights that Caccamo, an Italian intellectual, displayed in her reassessment of Muncie, Indiana - the town the Lynd's called "Middletown." Vidich explains the unique journey that brought an Italian intellectual to study an American community that has probably been more studied and critiqued and re-critiqued of any community in America. Why do it? Caccamo's motives were multi-fold and the reader will need to read this book for the clues. Perhaps more important were her findings; she concludes that the Lynd's completely overlooked many salient trends in Muncie community life that were not pertinent to their review of the older community values. Vidich was deeply impressed by the insights that an outsider like Caccamo could bring to Middletown studies. He considered it a "benchmark study" that vies with the Lynd's original work largely due to the value of taking a fresh look at issues that only an outsider could see.
Is there Truth in Hell?
Hans Speier was one of Arthur Vidich's dear colleagues at the New School for Social Research. Hans was a man of strong convictions and those were a product of his years of living in Nazi Germany and facing repression and a life of despair. Speier's essays compiled in The Truth in Hell, represent his work during the period 1935 to 1987 covering his life in Germany and in America. Speier was a brilliant observer of political affairs and was a renaissance man in his wide range of intellectual interests. Vidich aptly points to the deep imprint that Speier's experiences in Nazi Germany had on his thought - often leading him to a cynical Machiavellian perspective on many issues. Yet he was a man who had great spiritual consciousness and recognized that the intelligentsia is not going to show us the way out of the crisis that has left us bereft of spiritual values. According to Speier, that task "belongs to the spiritually free man who cherishes spiritual freedom." Vidich, in his introduction, gave a more nuanced view stating, "It might be added that this task belongs to the spiritually strong and the intellectually courageous, for they alone can offer us a glimpse of the world that includes irony and ambiguity unsanitized by ideological purification. This is the example that Hans Speier's work gives to us." Vidich had great admiration for Speier and his intellectual pursuits and it is truly reflected in his introduction to Speier collection of essays.
Intellectuals as Change Agents
Vidich wrote the introduction to Ahmad Sadri's Max Weber's Sociology of Intellectuals, published in 1992. In it he praised Sadri's gift for bringing "order to a subject that up to now has defied the best efforts of social theorists." Are intellectuals simply the product of the social and economic forces in which they live or can such persons rise above these material distractions and view the world dispassionately? In an age of propaganda driven by the vested interests of power cliques and social and political forces, it is often very difficult to determine the motives of intellectuals within our society. Sadri's book, according to Vidich, expands on Max Weber's theories concerning the role of intellectuals in modern society and establishes an entirely new framework for organizing intellectual traditions. As Vidich explains, Sadri "ingeniously provides a way to differentiate such diverse types as scientists, scholars, theorists, theologians priests, bureaucrats, media specialists, reformers, lawyers and revolutionaries by their attitude and function." While Sadri's writing may at times be ponderous, it is a masterful treatment of the role of intellectuals in modern society. As Vidich concludes, Sadri's "formulation of a heuristic general theory of intellectuals and intelligentsia is independently significant, a major contribution to contemporary social thought."Community Studies - An Anthropologist's Perspective
Arthur Vidich praised Rita Caccamo's Back to Middletown as one of the finest examples of applying an anthropologist's "outsider perspective" to the critique of American communities. For those familiar with American community studies, the two landmark works by Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture and ten years later, Middletown in Transition (1937) established the first reference points for the decline of small town communities in America. Vidich's own work, Small Town in Mass Society, followed in that tradition so his review of Cacamo's book was more than an academic favor for a colleague. Vidich, trained both as a sociologist and anthropologist, recognized the unique insights that Caccamo, an Italian intellectual, displayed in her reassessment of Muncie, Indiana - the town the Lynd's called "Middletown." Vidich explains the unique journey that brought an Italian intellectual to study an American community that has probably been more studied and critiqued and re-critiqued of any community in America. Why do it? Caccamo's motives were multi-fold and the reader will need to read this book for the clues. Perhaps more important were her findings; she concludes that the Lynd's completely overlooked many salient trends in Muncie community life that were not pertinent to their review of the older community values. Vidich was deeply impressed by the insights that an outsider like Caccamo could bring to Middletown studies. He considered it a "benchmark study" that vies with the Lynd's original work largely due to the value of taking a fresh look at issues that only an outsider could see.
Is there Truth in Hell?
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