Morton M. Grodzins was a professor of political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 at 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...

, as well as a dean

Dean (education)

In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 of the school and an editor at Chicago University Press. He is known for coining the term "tipping point

Tipping point

In sociology, a tipping point is the event of a previously rare phenomenon becoming rapidly and dramatically more common. The phrase was coined in its sociological use by Morton Grodzins, by analogy with the fact in physics that adding a small amount of weight to a balanced object can cause it to...

" in studies of white flight

White flight

White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...

, such as The Metropolitan Area as a Racial Problem (1958). His book Americans Betrayed (1949) was the first major study criticizing the Japanese-American internment during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. His book Making un-Americans looked at Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 paranoia in a critical light. Owing to his concern about the threat of nuclear war, he played a leading role in the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...

. He also wrote major studies of American federalism

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

, in which he criticized the idea that the federal, state, and local governments operated distinctly from one another.

Works

• Americans Betrayed: Politics and the Japanese Evacuation, 1949. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• The Metropolitan Area as a Racial Problem, 1958. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
• The American System: A New View of the Government of the United States, 1966. New York: Rand McNally.
• The Federal System,1960's.

External links