Sorokin, ‘Contemporary Social and Cultural Crisis’ – Harvard Alumni Bulletin
Posted here (above) is the following downloadable PDF file:
“Contemporary Social and Cultural Crisis”
By Dr. P. A. Sorokin, Professor of Sociology
Harvard Alumni Bulletin
Vol. XL, No. 16
February 4, 1938
1. 512-514
Sorokin gave this address in December 1937 as part of a series of radio talks
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We have here Sorokin writing in the characteristic style of the years following the publication of his Social and Cultural Dynamics, the fist three volumes of which were published in 1937 — a style that foreshadows that of The Crisis of Our Age, which was published in 1941.
Scholars currently studying Sorokin’s early works in Russian are learning more about his career as a writer. Overlooked (mostly) in the past was the early journalistic experience he had. Sorokin qua writer is a topic that deserves study. One will find, I believe, both strengths and weaknesses.
The fact that Sorokin wrote the majority of his major works in a second language is not something to be ignored. Even in this rather straightforward article, there can be seen occasional infelicities in grammar and wording.
— Roger W. Smith
August 2019
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addendum:
An article of interest — in Russian — has recently been published:
Американский этап лингвистической биографии Питирима Сорокина (“The American Stage of Pitirim Sorokin’s Linguistic Biography”)
by Сергиева Н.С. (Natalia S. Sergieva)
Полилингвиальность и транскультурные практики (Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices)
Vol. 16, No..1 (2019), pp. 35-44
Abstract:
The article discusses the features of the bilingualism of an eminent sociologist of the twentieth century Pitirim Sorokin in the American period of his life. The purpose of the study is to identify and explain the linguistic features of his scientific thinking in connection with the development of his scientific worldview. The study is based on the materials in the Pitirim A. Sorokin Collection at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada). Archival manuscripts and research notes allow us to trace the process of changing the language and switching codes in the professional activities of Sorokin after moving to the United States of America. It has been established that the use of a mixed metalanguage by Sorokin can be considered as additional evidence of the continued connection with the Russian period of his life and scientific activity. Russian remained for him a tool of scientific thinking, planning and management.
Sergieva, ‘American Stage of Pitirim Sorokin’s Linguistic Biography’
Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin 