Robert Morrison MacIver

Robert Morrison MacIver , 1882-1970, Scottish-American sociologist, b. Scotland, grad. Univ. of Edinburgh and Oxford. He began teaching at Columbia Univ. in 1927. His books, in which he discusses the complexities of social and political organization, include Community: A Sociological Study (1917), Society: Its Structure and Changes (1931), The Web of Government (1947), The Pursuit of Happiness (1955), Life: Its Dimensions and Its Bounds (1960), The Challenge of the Passing Years (1962), Social Causation (1964), The Prevention and Control of Delinquency (1966), Politics & Society (1969), and On Community, Society, and Power; Selected Writings, ed. by L. Bramson (1970).

MacIver, Robert M. (1882–1970) A pioneering but neglected Scottish sociologist, who–after brief scholarships at Aberdeen and Edinburgh—became chair of sociology at Columbia University in New York in 1929, where he stayed until 1950. His classic textbook Society (first published in 1931, revised 1937, 3rd edn. 1949 with Charles Page) reveals his concern with developing a systematic, theoretical, humanistic, yet evolutionary sociology. His prime interests were the state (The Web of Government, 1947) and community (Community, 1928). Full biographical details can be found in As A Tale That is Told: The Autobiography of Robert M. MacIver (1968).