Edward Albert Shils (1911-1995), American sociologist, studied the sociology of culture, with special attention to the role of ideology in culture and the part played by intellectuals in the formation and shaping of ideology. He also studied the sociology of science, of higher education, and of literature, plus the sociology of sociology itself.

For whatever reason, Edward Albert Shils chose to keep most of the facts of his life closed to public view. We do know, however, that he was born in 1911 and received a Bachelor's degree in foreign languages from the University of Pennsylvania some 20 years later. He worked as a social worker for several years, including one year in New York.

On September 22, 1932, this young man [as he described himself in one of his articles] without social airs and without social ambitions, poor, rather ignorant, serious, and intellectual, launched on a quest without knowing what he...