Daniel Bell
Encyclopedia
Daniel Bell was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritus at Harvard University
, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading American intellectuals of the postwar era." His three best known works are The End of Ideology
, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism.
of Manhattan in New York City
. His parents, Benjamin and Anna Belotsky, were originally from Eastern Europe. They worked in the garment industry. His father died when he was eight months old, and he grew up living with relatives along with his mother and his older brother. At age 13, the family name was changed from Bolotsky to Bell.
and City College of New York
with a bachelor's degree in science and social science in 1938, and studied for one year further at Columbia University
(1938–39).
magazine (1941–1945), labor editor of Fortune
(1948–1958) and later co-editor (with his college friend Irving Kristol) of The Public Interest
magazine (1965–1973). In the late 1940s Bell was Instructor in the Social Sciences in the College of the University of Chicago. In 1960, Columbia awarded him a Ph.D.; his dissertation was entitled "The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties," the title of his first book. Subsequently he taught sociology, first at Columbia (1959–1969) and then at Harvard until his retirement in 1990. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1964.
Bell also was the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
at Cambridge University in 1987. He served as a member of the President’s Commission on Technology in 1964–1965 and as a member of the President’s Commission on a National Agenda for the 1980s in 1979.
Bell received honorary degrees from Harvard, the University of Chicago
, fourteen other universities in the United States, Edinburgh Napier University, and Keio University
in Japan
. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association
in 1992, and the Talcott Parsons
Prize for the Social Sciences from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. He was given the Tocqueville Award by the French government in 1995.
Bell was a director of Suntory Foundation and a scholar in residence of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bell once described himself as a "socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture."
(1960), The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)
and The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973). Two of his books, the End of Ideology and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism were listed by the Times Literary Supplement as among the 100 most important books in the second half of the twentieth century. Besides Bell only Isaiah Berlin
, Claude Lévi-Strauss
, Albert Camus
, George Orwell
and Hannah Arendt
, had two books so listed.
In The End of Ideology, Bell suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies will soon arise.
. He argued that post-industrialism would be information
-led and service-oriented. Bell also argued that the post-industrial society would replace the industrial society as the dominant system. There are three components to a post-industrial society, according to Bell:
Bell also conceptually differentiates between three aspects of the post-industrial society: data, or information describing the empirical world, information, or the organization of that data into meaningful systems and patterns such as statistical analysis, and knowledge, which Bell conceptualizes as the use of information to make judgments. Bell discussed the manuscript of The Coming of Post-Industrial Society with Talcott Parsons
before its publication.
, and his daughter, Jordy Bell, was an academic administrator and teacher of, among other things, U.S. Women's history at Marymount College, Tarrytown
, New York, before her retirement in 2005.
Bell lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, with his wife Pearl Bell, a scholar of literary criticism. He died at home on January 25, 2011.
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading American intellectuals of the postwar era." His three best known works are The End of Ideology
The End of Ideology
The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties is a book by Daniel Bell, first published in 1960, in which he suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies...
, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism.
Early life
Daniel Bell was born in 1919 in the Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His parents, Benjamin and Anna Belotsky, were originally from Eastern Europe. They worked in the garment industry. His father died when he was eight months old, and he grew up living with relatives along with his mother and his older brother. At age 13, the family name was changed from Bolotsky to Bell.
Education
Bell graduated from Stuyvesant High SchoolStuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
and City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
with a bachelor's degree in science and social science in 1938, and studied for one year further at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1938–39).
Career
Bell began his professional life as a journalist, being managing editor of The New LeaderThe New Leader
The New Leader was a political and cultural magazine begun in 1924 by a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, including Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, and published in New York by the American Labor Conference on International Affairs. Its orientation is liberal and...
magazine (1941–1945), labor editor of Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
(1948–1958) and later co-editor (with his college friend Irving Kristol) of The Public Interest
The Public Interest
The Public Interest was a quarterly public policy journal founded by established New York intellectuals Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol in 1965. It was a leading neoconservative journal on political economy and culture, aimed at a readership of journalists, scholars, and policy makers...
magazine (1965–1973). In the late 1940s Bell was Instructor in the Social Sciences in the College of the University of Chicago. In 1960, Columbia awarded him a Ph.D.; his dissertation was entitled "The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties," the title of his first book. Subsequently he taught sociology, first at Columbia (1959–1969) and then at Harvard until his retirement in 1990. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1964.
Bell also was the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions
The Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions was established on 5 February 1944 from a sum of £44,000 received from the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press in 1943 and augmented by a further £5,000 in 1946...
at Cambridge University in 1987. He served as a member of the President’s Commission on Technology in 1964–1965 and as a member of the President’s Commission on a National Agenda for the 1980s in 1979.
Bell received honorary degrees from Harvard, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, fourteen other universities in the United States, Edinburgh Napier University, and Keio University
Keio University
,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
in 1992, and the Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....
Prize for the Social Sciences from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. He was given the Tocqueville Award by the French government in 1995.
Bell was a director of Suntory Foundation and a scholar in residence of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bell once described himself as a "socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture."
Scholarship
Bell is best known for his contributions to post-industrialism. His most influential books are The End of IdeologyThe End of Ideology
The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties is a book by Daniel Bell, first published in 1960, in which he suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies...
(1960), The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)
and The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973). Two of his books, the End of Ideology and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism were listed by the Times Literary Supplement as among the 100 most important books in the second half of the twentieth century. Besides Bell only Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...
, Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
, Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
and Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, had two books so listed.
The End of Ideology
Main article: The End of IdeologyThe End of Ideology
The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties is a book by Daniel Bell, first published in 1960, in which he suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies...
In The End of Ideology, Bell suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies will soon arise.
The Coming of Post-Industrial Society
In The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting, Bell outlined a new kind of society - the post-industrial societyPost-industrial society
If a nation becomes "post-industrial" it passes through, or dodges, a phase of society predominated by a manufacturing-based economy and moves on to a structure of society based on the provision of information, innovation, finance, and services.-Characteristics:...
. He argued that post-industrialism would be information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
-led and service-oriented. Bell also argued that the post-industrial society would replace the industrial society as the dominant system. There are three components to a post-industrial society, according to Bell:
- a shift from manufacturing to services
- the centrality of the new science-based industries
- the rise of new technical elites and the advent of a new principle of stratification.
Bell also conceptually differentiates between three aspects of the post-industrial society: data, or information describing the empirical world, information, or the organization of that data into meaningful systems and patterns such as statistical analysis, and knowledge, which Bell conceptualizes as the use of information to make judgments. Bell discussed the manuscript of The Coming of Post-Industrial Society with Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....
before its publication.
The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism
In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Bell contends that the culture created by capitalism generates a need for personal gratification among the successful, and that this will harm the work ethic that caused that success of capitalism in the first place.Personal
Bell's son, David Bell, is a professor of French history at Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and his daughter, Jordy Bell, was an academic administrator and teacher of, among other things, U.S. Women's history at Marymount College, Tarrytown
Marymount College, Tarrytown
Marymount College of Fordham University was a women's college in the United States, eventually to become part of Fordham University. The Marymount campus was located in Tarrytown, New York. Enrollment peaked at 1,112 in 1978, but by 2004 it enrolled 844 students...
, New York, before her retirement in 2005.
Bell lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, with his wife Pearl Bell, a scholar of literary criticism. He died at home on January 25, 2011.
Selected bibliography
- The End of IdeologyThe End of IdeologyThe End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties is a book by Daniel Bell, first published in 1960, in which he suggests that the older grand humanistic ideologies derived from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are exhausted, and that new more parochial ideologies...
(1960) - The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting, Daniel Bell. New York: Basic Books, 1973, ISBN 0-465-01281-7
- The Revolution of Rising Entitlement (1975)
- The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)