Barrington Moore Jr.

Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005)[1] was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.

This article is about the sociologist. For the forester (his father), see Barrington Moore, Sr.
Barrington Moore Jr.
Born(1913-05-12)May 12, 1913
Washington D.C., U.S.
DiedOctober 16, 2005(2005-10-16) (aged 92)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationPolitical sociologist
Academic background
Alma materWilliams College
Yale University
Doctoral advisorAlbert Galloway Keller
Academic work
Doctoral studentsCharles Tilly, Theda Skocpol, John Mollenkopf, Jon Wiener

He is well-known for his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966), a comparative study of modernization in Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and India.[2] The book puts forth a neo-Marxist argument that class structures and class alliances at particular points in time can account for the kinds of social revolutions that occurred and did not occur in those countries, putting some countries on a path to democracy, whereas others were put on a path to authoritarianism or communism.[3][4] He famously argued, "no bourgeois, no democracy," which emphasized the important role played by a large middle-class in accomplishing democratization and ensuring democratic stability.[5]

Early life, education and career

He was born in Washington D.C. in 1913.[2]

He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1936, where he received a thorough education in Latin and Greek and in history.[2] He also became interested in political science, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1941, Moore obtained his Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University where he studied with Albert Galloway Keller.[6] He worked as a policy analyst for the government, in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and at the Department of Justice.

Academic career

His academic career began in 1945 at the University of Chicago, in 1948 he went to Harvard University, joining the Russian Research Center in 1951. He was emerited in 1979.[2] Early in his academic career, Moore was a specialist on Russian politics and society, authoring his first book, Soviet Politics in 1950 and Terror and Progress, USSR in 1954.[2] In 1958 his book of six essays on methodology and theory, Political Power and Social Theory, attacked the methodological outlook of 1950s social science.

His students at Harvard included comparative social scientists Theda Skocpol and Charles Tilly, urban sociologist John Mollenkopf,[7] as well as historian Jon Wiener.[8]

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Main article: Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Moore's groundbreaking work Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966) was the cornerstone to what is now called comparative historical analysis in the social sciences.[9]

Moore's concern was the transformation of pre-industrial agrarian social relations into "modern" ones. He highlighted what he called "three routes to the modern world" - the liberal democratic, the fascist, and the communist - each deriving from the timing of industrialization and the social structure at the time of transition.

He drew particular attention to the violence which preceded the development of democratic institutions.[10] Initially, Moore set out to study a large number of countries, but reduced his number of cases to eight.[10]

On tolerance

In 1965, Moore, Herbert Marcuse, and Robert Paul Wolff each authored an essay on the concept of tolerance and the three essays were collected in the book A Critique of Pure Tolerance. The title was a play on the title of Immanuel Kant's book Critique of Pure Reason. In the book Moore argues that academic research and society in general should adopt a strictly scientific and secular outlook and approach theories and conjectures with empirical verification.[11]

Personal life

While working at the OSS, he met Herbert Marcuse, a lifelong friend, and also his future wife, Elizabeth Ito, at the OSS. His wife died in 1992. They had no children.

Works
  • Soviet Politics – The Dilemma of Power: The Role of Ideas in Social Change, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1950.
  • Terror and Progress, USSR: Some Sources of Change and Stability in the Soviet Dictatorship, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1954.
  • Political Power and Social Theory: Six Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1958. Erweiterte Ausgabe: Political Power and Social Theory: Seven Studies, Harper & Row, New York, 1965.
  • Barrington Moore, Jr., Robert Paul Wolff, Herbert Marcuse: A Critique of Pure Tolerance, Beacon Press, Boston, 1965.
  • Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, Beacon Press, Boston, 1966. ISBN 0-8070-5073-3.
  • Reflections of the Causes of Human Misery and upon Certain Proposals to Eliminate Them, Beacon Press, Boston, 1972.
  • Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt, M.E. Sharpe, White Plains, NY, 1978. ISBN 0-333-24783-3.
  • Privacy: Studies in Social and Cultural History, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1983.
  • Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism: USA, USSR, and China (Tanner Lectures on Human Values), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
  • Moral Aspects of Economic Growth, and Other Essays (The Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture), Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1998. ISBN 0-8014-3376-2
  • Moral Purity and Persecution in History, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000. ISBN 0-691-04920-3.

See also

References
  1. Dennis Smith, "Obituary: Barrington Moore — Author of a daring sociological classic", The Independent, 17 November 2005, 59.
  2. Munck, Gerardo L.; Snyder, Richard (2007). Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-8018-8464-1.
  3. Skocpol, Theda (1973). "A Critical Review of Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy". Politics & Society. 4 (1): 1–34. doi:10.1177/003232927300400101. ISSN 0032-3292. S2CID 143910152.
  4. Wiener, Jonathan M. (1975). "The Barrington Moore Thesis and Its Critics". Theory and Society. 2 (3): 301–330. doi:10.1007/BF00212740. ISSN 0304-2421. JSTOR 656776. S2CID 144204537.
  5. "The Canon: The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World". Times Higher Education (THE). 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  6. "Barrington Moore Jr., 92, Harvard sociologist". Harvard Gazette. Cambridge, Massachusetts. October 27, 2005.
  7. Mollenkopf, John (1983). The Contested City. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. ix. ISBN 0691076596.
  8. Wiener, Jonathan M. (1978). Social origins of the new South : Alabama, 1860-1885. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. xi. ISBN 9780807103975.
  9. Gerschewski, Johannes (2021). "Explanations of Institutional Change: Reflecting on a "Missing Diagonal"". American Political Science Review. 115: 218–233. doi:10.1017/S0003055420000751. ISSN 0003-0554.
  10. Munck, Gerardo L.; Snyder, Richard (2007). Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8018-8464-1.
  11. Moore, Barrington, Herbert Marcuse and Robert Paul Wolff, A Critique of Pure Tolerance (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965)
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