My Brother's Keeper

Amitai Etzioni long ago established himself as an important academic sociologist. This side of Etzioni’s life is touched on, but it is not the central theme of this book. The focus is much more on Etzioni as a public intellectual. In a sense, this is the story of how Etzioni became a public intellectual, what he has done and contributed as a public intellectual, and what it means to him. Sections of the book focus on aspects of his personal life, his academic career, and his activities as a public intellectual. All of them contribute to our understanding of Etzioni as a person and as a public figure, though some readers might wish for more information on the personal and academic sides of his life. Amitai Etzioni was four years old in 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany. By 1947 he had been separated from and reunited with his parents, lived a year in Athens, arrived in Palestine, lived on a cooperative farm, attended a boarding school, and dropped out of tenth grade to join Palmach (elite commando units of Hagana). In 1950 Etzioni enrolled in a special academic institute established by Martin Buber. The next year he enrolled at Hebrew University where he read classical and contemporary works in sociology and completed both BA and MA degrees. By the end of 1958 Etzioni had completed a Ph.D. at Berkeley. Then it was on to a faculty position at Columbia. Later faculty positions included Harvard Business School and George Washington University. Except as it is related to his public service activities, Etzioni provides only limited information on the academic aspects of his career. He does mention many of his numerous publications, but there is very little information about teaching, interacting with students, working with graduate assistants, and doing academic research. Much of what he has to say about his interaction with colleagues during his early years at Columbia is concerned with conflicts related to his involvement in public issues. Nevertheless, he has been a very productive scholar, publishing early works on complex organizations (e.g., Modern Organizations [1964]) and social organization (e.g., The Active Society [1968]) and later works related to the ideas behind the communitarian movement (e.g., The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society [1996]). His contributions to sociology have been recognized by various awards and by his election in 1995 as president of the American Sociological Association. Etzioni’s concern for public issues goes back at least to his boarding school days. By the 1960s his concerns included the Cuban missile crisis, the nuclear arms race, the war in Vietnam, and criticism of the cost of Project Apollo. In the 1970s Etzioni turned his attention to bioethics and then to reindustrialization. Clearly, however, Etzioni’s greatest successes and satisfactions in the public arena have occurred between 1990 and the present, as he has played a major part in establishing the contemporary communitarian movement. The current communitarian movement has many roots in history, in philosophy and the social sciences, and in Etzioni’s biography. An immediate source of communitarian thinking is as a reaction to the “me-first” attitude of the 1980s and the attendant breakdown of community. Another is the continuing division between liberals and conservatives, and the desire for a middle ground. What is called for according to Etzioni is a concern for both rights and responsibilities, greater concern for the public good, and democratic development of shared goals and values. This responsive communitarianism seeks to strengthen the ability of families, schools, and other aspects of community to instill positive values. It seeks an orderly and progressive society based on persuasion rather than coercion. The emphasis is on getting people involved in positive ways at various levels of community. Etzioni is very sympathetic to the perspective reflected by Robert Bellah’s term “habits of the heart. ” The list of public figures with whom Etzioni has shared these ideas is very impressive. Participants in the new communitarianism have taken a stand on a variety of issues. Among these are encouraging community