Advocacy and Objectivity: A Crisis in the Professionalization of American Social Science, 1865-1905

374 Pages·1975·24.927 MB·English

by  Mary O. Furner

ADVOCACY & OBJECTIVITY
Publishedf ar the
Organizationo f American Historians
Mary 0. Furner
ADVOCACY &
OBJECTIVITY
A Crisisi n the
Professionalizatioonf
AmericanS ocialS cience
1
1865-1905
The UniversityP ress of Kentucky
Publication of this book was assisted by
the American Council of Learned Societies
under a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
ISBN: 0-8131-1309-1
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-86403
Copyright© 1975 by The University Press of Kentucky
A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency
serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky,
Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky State College, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and
Western Kentucky University
Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506
for my mother& father

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 Reform versus Knowledge 10
2 Scientists of Wealth & Welfare 35
3 Battle of the Schools 59
4 Patterns of Professionalism 81
5 Compromise 107
6 Compliance 125
7 From Advocacy to Acceptability 143
8 The Perils of Radicalism 163
9 Permissible Dissent 205
10 Collective Security 229
11 Patterns of Authority 260
12 Specialization 278
13 Resolution 313
Bibliography 325
Index 345

Preface
This book is the result of a desire to find out what would
happen if historians and social scientists, themselves recognized
professionals, examined the history and present influence of the
professions with something like the imagination, diligence, and
zeal for objectivity that scholars have long devoted to 'political
parties, business leaders, and labor organizations. The profes
sions have seldom raised their leaders to prominence as folk
heroes, nor have individuals identified primarily with the pro
fessions appeared as major combatants in those legendary strug
gles between the people and the interests or the masses and the
classes that have fixed so much attention on revolutions, reform
movements, and wars.
Yet it can hardly be denied that at least since the latter part
of the nineteenth century a large measure of control over the
complex, routine, day-to-day workings of vital economic, social,
and political processes has been delegated to people with profes
sional credentials as the source of their authority. With few
exceptions, professionals in key positions are anonymous as far
as the general public is concerned. They are neither publicly
elected nor reviewed. But the multiplication of functions requir
ing a level of technical expertise that can only be acquired
through highly specialized training has made professionals indis
pensable to modern life, often in performing services and
making judgments that they themselves have helped to make
essential. Such power deserves scrutiny.
Attempts to probe the workings of the social science profes
sions have a special significance, for professional social scien
tists, through their extensive control over formal education and
publication in the social sciences, have developed enormous
power to influence the content and extent of social criticism in
the United States. Until recently, however, most studies of