Morris Janowitz was an American sociologist and professor who made major contributions to sociological theory, the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism.
26 Facts About Morris Janowitz
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Morris Janowitz was one of the founders of military sociology and made major contributions, along with Samuel P Huntington, to the establishment of contemporary civil-military relations.
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Morris Janowitz was a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago and held a five-year chairmanship of the Sociology Department at University of Chicago.
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Morris Janowitz was the Lawrence A Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.
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Morris Janowitz was an early founder of the field of military sociology.
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Morris Janowitz was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, the second son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and attended Eastside High School.
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Morris Janowitz earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington Square College of New York University, where he studied under Sidney Hook and Bruce Lannes Smith.
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In 1943, Morris Janowitz was drafted into the Army, where he joined the Office of Strategic Services Research and Analysis Branch, performing content analysis of communications and propaganda in German radio broadcasts, as well as interviews of German prisoners of war.
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In 1946, Morris Janowitz began his graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
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Morris Janowitz became an assistant professor upon completion of his PhD.
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In 1951, Morris Janowitz became a sociology professor at the University of Michigan, where he taught until 1961.
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Toward the end of his stay at Michigan, Morris Janowitz took an academic fellowship, during which he completed his first major publication, The Professional Soldier.
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In 1962, Morris Janowitz left Michigan and became a professor in the University of Chicago Sociology Department.
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Morris Janowitz did so by encouraging "new theoretical outlooks and alternative methodological approaches" through hiring more diverse faculty members from different disciplines.
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Morris Janowitz sought to reconstruct the intellectual heritage of the department through the creation of "The Heritage of Sociology" book series.
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The compilation of 40 volumes in the Heritage series led Morris Janowitz to reflect upon the philosophical foundations for sociology, recalling influential pragmatists such as George Herbert Mead, Sydney Hook, and perhaps most importantly, John Dewey.
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Morris Janowitz completed his five-year chairmanship of the Sociology Department in 1972.
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In 1972, Morris Janowitz was honored as a Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions by the University of Cambridge.
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Morris Janowitz remained in the department until his retirement in 1987, focusing more heavily on his academic pursuits, which culminated into a trilogy of books published between 1976 and 1983: Social Control of the Welfare State, The Last Half-Century, and The Reconstruction of Patriotism.
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Morris Janowitz died one year after retirement in 1988 on November 7 from Parkinson's disease.
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In 1953 Janowitz summoned a group of scholars, including Samuel P Huntington, to Ann Arbor, Michigan to discuss the future study of the armed forces.
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Morris Janowitz maintained that nuclear war reduced the likelihood of full-scale war and that the military would gradually take on many of the characteristics of a constabulary force.
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Morris Janowitz's theory was more centrally concerned with civic virtue, inspired through the role of the active participation of the citizen soldier.
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Morris Janowitz earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington Square College of New York University, where he studied under Sidney Hook, prominent pragmatist and former student of John Dewey.
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Morris Janowitz utilized pragmatism in his characterization of attitudes among military leadership.
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Morris Janowitz traced these attitudes historically to competing perspectives about the European and East Asian theaters of war during WWII, noting "a strong continuity between an officer's estimate of the conduct of World War II and his contemporary adherence to pragmatic or absolute doctrine".