Influence On Academic Sociology
Despite Ward's impressive and ground breaking accomplishments he has been largely written out of the history of sociology. Why? Paradoxically the thing that made Ward most attractive in the 19th century, his criticism of laissez-faire, made him seem dangerously radical to the ever-cautious academic community in early 20th century America. This perception was strengthened by the growing socialist movement in the US, led by Eugene V. Debs, the Marxist Russian Revolution, and the rise of Nazism in Europe. Ward was basically just replaced by Durkheim in the history books, which was easily accomplished because Durkheim's views were similar to Ward's but without the relentless criticism of laissez-faire and without Ward's calls for a strong central government and "social engineering". In 1937 Talcott Parsons, the Harvard sociologist and functionalist who almost single-handedly set American sociology's academic curriculum in the mid-20th century, wrote that "Spencer is dead", thereby dismissing not only Spencer but also Spencer's most powerful critic.
Read more about this topic: Lester Frank Ward
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