Robert Nisbet: Communitarian Traditionalist

by Brad Lowell Stone

This is the only book-length intellectual biography of sociologist Robert Nisbet (1913-1996). It is now available in quality paperback.

Genres: Biography, Sociology, Politics, Philosophy

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2000

Reviews

[Dave Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Nisbet, thinker, sociologist,and academic administrator is the subject of Brad Lowell Stone’s incisive intellectual biography, “Robert.Nisbet.” Nisbet died in 1996, at the age of eighty-three, and was a prolific author who began his career at Berkeley, and later taught Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Bologna.

Nisbet, following Tocqueville and Burke, focused his research on the dissolution of mediating social structures, and the resultant consequences. In his “Quest for Community,” Nisbet Contrasted the social pluralism of established communities with the monism of modern democratic societies, Nisbet built upon the ideas of the Scottish moralists, among others, and in turn was a seminal influence for a generation of social scientists.

Stone, a sociologist, traces the development of Nisbet’s thought, and offers readers an useful template that clarifies the issues Nisbet sought to address. Stone’s prose style eschews the academic jargon that frequently deters the general reader, This is an excellent introduction to an important intellect.

[RW Gramscian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise and clear overview of a highly significant, but often neglected, cultural philosopher in the conservative tradition. Nisbet’s thought is indebted to the frankly still revelatory and groundbreaking ideas of the three major significant continental sociologists, viz. Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel, as well as the democratic philosophy of Alexis se Tocqueville.

Communitarian, pluralistic, and traditionalist, Nisbet should be a figure that those who subscribe to the European tradition of philosophical conservatism (e.g. one which is organicist, paternalistic, and critical) should come to familiarize themselves with.

If you are interested in right-wing thought that eschews the myopic libertarian individualism which has unfortunately come to be endemic to materialist postmodern culture, especially in the West (and even more so in America), then this text should serve as a welcome antidote to what ails you.

[Benja Graeber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Síntesis perfecta del pensamiento de uno de los sociologos más importantes de la mitad del siglo XX.

[The American Conservative]

'Brad Lowell Stone’s critical study is the first full-length book on a man long recognized as one of the postwar Right’s premier thinkers. The subtitle, in particular, gets to the heart of Nisbet’s worldview. Some of the prose gets bogged down in academic jargon; otherwise, the book is a fine introduction to a sociologist who wrote as he pleased and cared little what the consequences of his opinions might be.'

Read the full review, "Putting Communities First," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Jonathan]

None

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one I read for my book club. I never really expected to understand it, let alone like it. Really broaded my understanding of philosophy and politics.