After majoring in sociology I went on to graduate work at Columbia University. There I encountered three figures who became mentors for much of the work I have done since: Robert K. Merton, Paul F. Lazarsfeld and C.W. Mills. Each was an outstanding model for a particular talent: Merton for theoretical elegance and writing grace, Lazarsfeld for crisp simplicity in problem formulation and the measurement of complex constructs, and Mills for a refreshing perspective on sociology—the view that it is at the intersection of history and biography. Mills' conception was a radical one at the time, since in the 1940s and '50s the predominant view in sociology was that one only needed other social facts to explain social facts, a view congenial to a discipline trying to carve out a place in the intellectual firmament.
Three such different mentors left the issue of how to integrate their varying talents an ...
