Tag: Crane Brinton

Sorokin-Brinton exchange

 

Posted here are Russian translations of:

Crane Brinton. “Socio-Astrology” (The Southern Review 3.2, Fall 1937)

and

Sorokin’s rejoinder, “Histrionics” (The Southern Review 3.3, Winter 1938).

Brinton’s article was a review-essay of the first three volumes of Sorokin’s Social and Cultural Dynamics (The American Book Company, 1937).

Clarence Crane Brinton (1898-1968) was an American historian. He was the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at his alma mater, Harvard University.

The translations, published in Naslsedie  No. 1 (26) (2025). are by Natalia S. Sergieva and Roger W. Smith.

–– posted by Roger W. Smith

     September 2025

 

Brinton-Sorokin (trans Sergieva, Smith)

Crane Brinton, ‘Socio-Astrology’

‘Historionics’ (Sorokin reply to Crane Brinton)

nasledie_26-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a bitter exchange (Brinton, Sorokin)

 

Crane Brinton, ‘Socio-Astrology’

‘Historionics’ (Sorkin Reply to Crane Brinton)

Brinton-Sorokin Exchange – The Southern Review

 

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A remarkable exchange between Harvard history professor Crane Brinton and Pitirim A. Sorokin, then chairman of Harvard’s Department of Sociology, occurred in 1937 and 1938 in the pages of The Southern Review, a respected journal. That it appeared in The Southern Review, a literary journal, rather than a journal devoted to history or sociology, is noticeable.

Professor Brinton’s article comprised an appraisal of the first three volumes of Sorokin’s magnum opus, Social and Cultural Dynamics. It was not a standard review, by any means; it was, in fact an essay-review. It was over twenty pages long. Professor Sorokin’s rejoinder was about ten pages long.

Brinton attacks Sorokin with no holds barred, criticizing everything from the methodology and assumptions underlying the work to what he views as Sorokin’s atrocious prose style. Sorokin, clearly stung by the review, responded with a strenuous defense of his work in which he seemed at times to be on the defensive and in other sections of his rejoinder essay tried to even the score with a vigorous counterattack.

The two articles are posted above as downloadable PDF files.

Crane Brinton, Socio-Astrology, The Southern Review, vol. 3 (fall 1937), pp. 243-266

Pitirim A. Sorokin, “Histrionics,” The Southern Review, vol. 3 (winter 1938), pp. 554-564

 

— Roger W. Smith

     August 2017