SOURCE: “Losing Giants,” in Society, Vol. 34, No. 3, March-April, 1997, pp. 56-63.

In the following essay, Horowitz laments the deaths of Nisbet, E. Digby Baltzell, and Anselm L. Strauss, highlighting their common dislike of the entrenched elites of the late twentieth century.

Recently Society published notices of the passing of three intellectual giants of sociology: E. Digby Baltzell, Robert A. Nisbet, and Anselm L. Strauss. These men were personal friends as well as academic figures of the highest quality. They were also part of the soul of Transaction and of social science writ large. To lose one of these figures would be painful at any time. To experience the death of all three in the course of a single month is, put simply, catastrophic. It forces one to think again about where we are and what we have achieved as a field and as a framework.

Each of these men...