Howard P. Becker

Howard Paul Becker ( born December 9, 1899 in New York City; † June 8, 1960 ) was an American sociologist. It dealt mainly with knowledge and sociology of religion. He was the 50th president of the American Sociological Association.

From 1913 to 1922 industrial workers, Becker started operation in 1922 with no formal education the study of social sciences at Northwestern University ( Illinois) and heard in 1926/27 as an exchange student at the University of Cologne, Max Scheler and Leopold von Wiese. In 1930 he was at the University of Chicago Dr. phil. doctorate, where he had already acted as assistant professor of sociology since 1928. Since 1937, Becker was then a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, he also taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts ) and Stanford University ( California), also still in Birmingham and Toronto.

After the Second World War Becker was part of the Secret Intelligence Service in the American zone of occupation officer for the University of Frankfurt, Marburg University and other universities. Early on, he encouraged Leopold von Wiese and Max Graf zu Solms to revive the German Society for Sociology. He later returned as a high school teacher back to the University of Wisconsin. Although not born in Europe, Becker was proficient in German. He contributed significantly to the dissemination of German sociology in the United States.

Becker felt sociological especially Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Maurice Halbwachs, Ferdinand Tönnies and Bronislaw Malinowski obliged and was even an academic teacher of C. Wright Mills. In Germany, the sociologist Hanna Meuter, also a student of Wiese, close contact with Becker and his family in the U.S. had ( the correspondence is located in the district of Viersen archive ); she publications include reviews about Becker's works.

Writings (selection )

• With Leopold von Wiese: Systematic sociology. In 1932.
• Social Thought from Lore to Science. In 1938.
• German Youth: Bond or Free. 1946 ( German: . Berets From the spring fluctuates history of the German youth movement Wiesbaden 1949. ).
• Family, Marriage, and Parenthood. In 1948.
• Man in Reciprocity. Introductory Lectures on Culture, Society and Personality. Praeger, New York 1956.
• Sociology as a science of social action. 1959 ..