Charles Wright Mills

Have a little read: ... Charles Wright Mills was the most inspiring sociologist of the second half of the twentieth century, his achievement all the more remarkable for the fact that he died at 45 and produced his major work in a span of little more than a decade. He was a critic of ideology and a social scientist as well. According to many people he was both a scholar and radical, but unfortunately never quite succeeding. Mills had many ideas and philosophies, which some were agreed on and others objected to. He spent a great amount of time dealing with the writings of Karl Marx and Max Weber. Mills mixed the ideas of these two sociologists to come up with some of his best ideas and thoughts. The combination of Marx and Weber helped develop Mills's theory of social reality. Throughout the short life that Mills lived he wrote eleven books and over two hundred articles. Mills was forced to live off advances of books not yet written and he died nine thousand dollars in debt. His wife had no other choice but to barrow money from her father to bury him. According to contemporary social thought; his protestant background lies at the root of his social philosophy. Just recently, nearly a decade after his death is he beginning to be recognized for what he deserves. C. Wright Mills was born in Waco, Texas, on August 28, 1916. He was one of two children and was born into a middle-class Irish and English Catholic family. In 1920 his family moved from Waco to Dallas, where Mills began to educate himself at Dallas Technical High School. The reason for the move was because his father had a job offering for an insurance company. At an early age it was very noticeable to see that something was different about Charles Mills (he dropped the Charles in college and then used the initial C and his middle name, Write). The odd thing about Mills as a child was his strong objection to adults. He would stand up to adults, teachers and principals when he thought he was right and refused to back down. Mills always showed a stubborn attitude, which his mother referred to as "his unbeatable will"(Scimecca, 9). Besides his stubbornness, Mills always showed a tenacious faith in his own abilities. This attitude seemed to stay with him all his life. When he was questioned on why his class standing was mediocre and not at the top of his class, Mills relied by saying, "I didn't want to"(Scimecca, 9). Later on in life his family truly believed that statement based on his intellectual achievements. Mill's younger days of elementary school were mainly depressing. He had very few friends and most of his love and attention came from adults. This soon ended, as his high school years were more blissful. Mills developed the art of craftsmanship, which became so important to his life. He soon realized that carpentry was a gift that he