He was born in 1916 in Waco Texas United States. He did not live long as he died at the age of 48, that is 1962, from a heart attack . However, he had a productive scientific life, and his most important works are:
The New Men of Power (1948), From Max Weber (1948), White Collar(1951), Character and Social Structure (1953), Power Elite (1956), The Causes of World War Three (1958), Sociological Imagination (1959), Listen Yankee (1960), The Marxists (1962).
A quick look at the dates of published books, represent C. Wright Mills’ intellectual development. In the last years of his life he wrote about the Marxists. Perhaps this proves what Ritzer says “Milles was not a Marxist and had not read any of Marx works by the mid-1950s. Even after that he only sufficed to a few English translation of Marx works as he couldn’t read German. (Ritzer, 1386: 87).
-Please define concepts of structure and unites of social structure?
A-Definition of structure; Social structure is a combination of institutional systems. Social structure is usually dominated by a political system (Miles, 1360: 149 and 175).
B-Units of social structure;Units of social structure are the Contemporary national governments that are the key to contemporary history, since contemporary national governments include all political, military, economic, and bureaucratic institutions (ibid 150).
Accoding to Mills What are sociological insight and its characteristics?
Milles refers to it as the “character” or “quality” of thought. This shows that Milles wants to compensate for the deficiencies of the positivist method and its the results on human sciences//humanities.This is where sociological insights are presented as a cultural indicator.
Please Write Mill’s criticism of structural functionalism theory.
Mills in his book refers to structural functionalism as a macro theory. He criticizes this theory. These criticisms are as follows:
1-According to Mills, macro-theory has some points but in fact it has an incomplete and incorrect base. (ibid: 43)
2-An issue that has occupied my mind is that in spite of the socialization process and the existence of various methods of social control, there are still individuals in the community//society who go beyond and rebel against social standards and norms. I cannot explain this within the framework of the social system.
3-The most basic character of the macro-theory is that theoretically speaking it is extremely general, as the followers of this theory cannot use it to address the empirical observations.
4-Scholars of Macro-theory claim that they have presented a “general sociological theory”, have in fact presented a set of concepts that do not have any of the structural features of human society, previously recognized as being fundamental for understanding a society. This was done with the intention of distinguishing and differentiating the topics discussed in sociology from that of economics and political science.
5-Within the framework of “the macro-theory”, the issue of conflict does not receive any attention. Institutional conflicts, widespread rebellions, and social revolutions are generally ignored. In fact, it is assumed that as soon as a social system is established, that system is automatically stable/sustainable and balanced. According to Parsons, the turmoil and riots are not inherent in the social system and are imposed from the outside (ibid:41-68).
How is the structure of Power in America?
Mills discussed the structure of political power in the United States in his book “power Elite”. According to Mills the American political system, contrary to what the public believes, has a non-democratic nature; because in American society a powerful minority rules a disable/incapable majority. A powerful minority is composed of:
A-Army commanders
B-Capitalists
C-Politicians
Studying in similar private schools, memberships in certain clubs and churches, as well as intermarriage are among the elements linking these group members together.
Summing up the discussion, one can trace a powerful minority composed of the above mentioned groups and a powerless majority in the heart of the seemingly democratic US system.