Gorski, Philip S.

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Gorski, Philip S.

PERSONAL:

Education: Deep Springs College, A.A., 1983; Harvard University, B.A., 1986; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1996.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Yale University, Department of Sociology, 140 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06511; fax: 203-432-6976. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Professor and writer. University of Wisconsin, Madison, assistant professor, 1996-2001, associate professor, 2001-03, professor of sociology, 2003-04, director of the Center for Comparative Social Analysis, beginning 2001; Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor of sociology, 2004—, codirector of the Center for Comparative Research, 2004—.

MEMBER:

American Sociological Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Harvard Center for European Studies summer research fellowship, 1985; Fulbright fellowship, 1986; National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, 1987-90; University of California, Berkeley, Regents fellowship, 1991; pre-dissertation travel award, Columbia Council on European Studies, 1991; German Academic Exchange Service graduate fellowship, 1992; Social Science Research Council Program on Western Europe dissertation fellowship, 1993; Charlotte Newcombe dissertation writing fellowship, 1994; Barrington Moore Prize for the best article in comparative-historical sociology, American Sociological Association, 1994, for "The Disciplinary Revolution"; Berlin Program, Social Science Research Council doctoral award, 1995; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Graduate School research fellowship, 1996-97 and 1999; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Lilly teaching fellowship, 1999; Best Article Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2001, for "Historicizing the Secularization Debate"; Romnes Award, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Andrei S. Markovits) The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2003.

(Editor, with Charles Camic and David M. Trubek) Max Weber's Economy and Society: A Critical Companion, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2005.

Contributor to book chapters and articles in journals. Consulting editor of the American Journal of Sociology, 1998-2000; Contemporary Sociology, 2000-02; and the American Sociological Review, 2002—. Coeditor of Sociological Theory, 2004—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Philip S. Gorski is a comparative historical sociologist. He teaches sociology at Yale University, where he has worked since 2004, and is the codirector of the university's Center for Comparative Research. Prior to this, Gorski taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In addition to being awarded numerous fellowships for his academic work, in 1994 Gorski received the Barrington Moore Prize from the American Sociological Association for his essay "The Disciplinary Revolution" and the Best Article Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2001 for the essay "Historicizing the Secularization Debate." His academic interests revolve around theory and methods in modern and early modern Europe. His research primarily deals with topics such as state formation, nationalism, revolution, economic development, and secularization, with a focus on the interaction of religion and politics. Other research topics of interest to him include philosophy and methodology of the social sciences and the nature and role of rationality in social life. He has developed his academic interests in the books The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond, The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe, and Max Weber's Economy and Society: A Critical Companion. He has also written numerous essays for academic journals and sociology books.

Gorski coauthored The German Left, published in 1993, with Andrei S. Markovits, a professor of politics and adjunct professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. The book deals with the role and growth of the German Green party, a political party that surfaced in the late 1970s as part of social movements comprised of environmentalists and peace activists. The German Left "seeks to explain the evolution of the traditional German ‘red’ Left of socialist and communist activists in the 1950s into a ‘red-green’ Left in the 1980s that has crystallized around the Green party," as American Political Science Review's Herbert Kitschelt put it in his review of the book. The German Left is broken down into three parts. The first part explores influences on the Green party, including the New Left and the student revolt, terrorist groups, communist groups, the Socialist German Students' League, the new women's movement, the Jusos (the youth organization of the German Social Democratic party), and peace movements. The second part of the book describes and evaluates the ideology of the Left as it pertains to the Green party and its policies. The final part evaluates the Green party and provides conjecture on its future.

Several critics found the book to be well researched and informative. West European Politics critic James Stuart Brice felt that "while the authors maintain a detached perspective overall, they occasionally editorialise…. Aside from such lapses into subjectivity, they offer a well-researched and highly informative survey of a complex topic with many insights into the uniqueness of the German Greens." Critic Kitschelt noted that "the book is a rich mine for those who are interested in the details of German politics and a welcome effort to add some liveliness to the often bland descriptions of the German political scene."

Published in 2003, The Disciplinary Revolution takes a look at aspects of the growth of the early modern state. In the book's introduction Gorski asserts that modern social and political theorists, unlike historians of early modern Europe, don't believe that the influence of religion on society, politics, and culture is obvious, and "Gorski's stated goal [of the book] is to increase these scholars' awareness of religion as a significant factor in the formation of the early modern state," Amy Nelson Burnett explained in her review of the book for Church History. She added that "he does so by focusing on the growth of institutions and practices controlling behavior, which he calls the disciplinary revolution and which he associates especially with Calvinism." According to Derek McKay in his review of the book on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, "while much of his material and the general thrust of his arguments will be familiar to the political and religious historian, it is interesting to see them tested against a range of social theories." Of the book, Robert M. Kingdon wrote in Renaissance Quarterly that Gorski's argument is "neatly organized, tightly reasoned, closely documented, and persuasive. In fact, I think it could even be strengthened at points." Kingdon further remarked that "this is a very important book that deserves close attention from all scholars interested in its subject."

Gorski, along with Charles Camic and David M. Trubek, edited the 2005 book Max Weber's Economy and Society. Max Weber's book, Economy and Society, is recognized by many as one of the most important works in the field of sociology. This companion book, which covers all of Economy and Society's major sections and themes, serves as a thorough introduction to this critical work.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1995, Raymond Dominick, review of The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond, p. 1262; June, 2004, Charles H. Parker, review of The Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe, p. 966.

American Journal of Sociology, July, 2006, Mabel Berezin, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 303.

American Political Science Review, March, 1995, Herbert Kitschelt, review of The German Left, p. 232.

Central European History, April, 1995, Jeffry M. Diefendorf, review of The German Left, p. 116; spring, 2005, R. Po-Chia Hsa, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 280.

Choice, September, 1994, A. Pickel, review of The German Left, p. 203; July-August, 2004, R.B. Barnes, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 2114.

Church History, September, 2005, Amy Nelson Burnett, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 616.

Comparative Political Studies, April, 1995, Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, review of The German Left, p. 155.

Comparative Politics, October, 1997, Sheri Berman, review of The German Left, p. 101.

Contemporary Sociology, November, 1994, Peter H. Merkl, review of The German Left, p. 806; September, 2004, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 573-574.

Environmental Politics, summer, 1994, Brian Doherty, review of The German Left, p. 335.

European History Quarterly, January, 2005, Graeme Murdock, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 144.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1994, Fritz Stern, review of The German Left, p. 170.

International Affairs, April, 1994, Peter Pulzer, review of The German Left, p. 363.

Journal of Modern History, March, 2006, Philip Benedict, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 172.

Journal of Religion, July, 2005, William Monter, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 503.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 2006, Robert M. Kingdon, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 204.

Review of Politics, fall, 1994, E. Gene Frankland, review of The German Left, p. 813.

Sociology of Religion, fall, 2007, James V. Spickard, review of The Disciplinary Revolution, p. 335.

West European Politics, January, 1996, James Stuart Brice, review of The German Left, p. 187.