Irving Louis Horowitz facts for kids

Irving Louis Horowitz (born September 25, 1929 – died March 21, 2012) was an American sociologist, author, and university professor. He wrote and taught a lot about how societies work. Later in his life, he worried that his field was becoming too focused on certain political ideas.

Horowitz suggested a way to measure a country's quality of life. He also helped make the term "Third World" popular. This term describes poorer nations that were not allied with major world powers. Many people saw him as a neoconservative, but he always said he didn't belong to any political group.

Early Life and Education

Irving Louis Horowitz was born in New York City on September 25, 1929. His parents were Louis and Esther Tepper Horowitz.

He went to City College of New York and earned his first degree in 1951. He then got his master's degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1952. Later, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1957.

A Career in Academia

Horowitz started his teaching career in Argentina from 1956 to 1958. For over 40 years, he taught at many universities around the world. These included places in India, Tokyo, Mexico, and Canada.

Besides teaching, he also advised different groups. He worked with the Latin American Research Center and the Ford Foundation's International Education Division.

From 1963 to 1969, Horowitz was a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. He was also a visiting professor at other famous universities. These included Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also taught in Canada and California. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in Argentina, Israel, and India.

Horowitz held many other important roles. He was on advisory boards for scientific information and publishing companies. He also worked with the Radio Marti and Television Marti Programs. His last teaching job was at Rutgers University. He was a professor of sociology and political science there starting in 1992.

Transaction Publishers and Society

Irving Louis Horowitz started Transaction Publishers. This company published many scholarly books. These were often academic books that might not have made a lot of money.

He also founded and edited a journal called Society. This journal published articles about sociology, politics, and social issues. It has since been bought by another company called Springer Verlag.

Important Ideas and Writings

Horowitz wrote more than 25 books and edited many others. He studied many different topics. These included the influence of the Unification Church on American politics. He also wrote about the future of book publishing and politics in Cuba. He founded a research series called Studies in Comparative International Development.

Early in his career, Horowitz was a student of C. Wright Mills. Mills was a well-known sociologist from Columbia University. Horowitz later edited two collections of Mills's writings after he passed away.

For many decades, Horowitz worked on a way to measure freedom in societies. He also looked at how much violence governments caused. His work helped create a standard for a nation's quality of life. This standard was based on how many people were killed, hurt, jailed, or lost their basic civil liberties.

Horowitz helped introduce the term "Third World" into social research. He believed it was important to republish research in different ways. This helped spread new ideas and make them useful to society.

Horowitz also wrote a lot about genocide. He said, "First comes the act and then comes the word." This means the terrible crime of genocide happens first, then we find words to describe it. He wrote important books on this topic. These include Genocide: State power & mass murder and Taking lives: Genocide & state power.

In 1990, he wrote an autobiography. It was called Daydreams and nightmares: Reflections on a Harlem childhood. This book won the National Jewish Book Award in 1991. It was about growing up in Harlem, New York City, in the 1930s. He described his childhood as the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.

You can find a list of over 200 of his works on Google Scholar.

Personal Life

In 1951, Irving Louis Horowitz married Ruth Narowlansky. They had two children, Carl and David. They later divorced in 1964. He married Danielle Salti in 1964, and they divorced in 1978. In 1979, he married Mary Ellen Curtis. He passed away on March 21, 2012. In 1973, Horowitz signed the Humanist Manifesto II.

Awards and Recognition

Irving Louis Horowitz received many awards during his career. He got a special award from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1957. Time magazine recognized him as a leader in sociology.

He also received the Centennial Medallion from St. Peter's College in 1971. This was for his great contributions to social science. In 1985, he received a Presidential Outstanding Achievement Award from Rutgers University.

He was a member of several important groups. These included the Carnegie Council and the American Political Science Association. He was also a past president of the New York State Sociological Society.

Selected Works

• The Anarchists (1964)
• Winners and Losers: Social and Political Polarities in America (1984)
• Cuban Communism: 1959-2003. 11th edition.
• The Long Night of Dark Intent: A Half Century of Cuban Communism. Transaction Publishers (2011).
• The War Game, Transaction Publishers (2013)
• Professing Sociology: Studies in the Life Cycle of the Social Sciences, Transaction Publishers (2014)