Jesse R. Pitts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jesse Richard Pitts (1921-2003), author and educator, was the son of an American father and a French mother. He was raised in France, later returning to the U.S. to attend Harvard University, where he graduated in 1941. He returned to Harvard for his Ph.D. in sociology, and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as well as the French Croix de Guerre.
On his return from duty, Pitts married Monique Bonnier, the daughter of French Resistance hero Claude Bonnier. He pursued a varied academic career, teaching at Wayne State University, Oakland University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia, also lecturing in Paris. He created the Franco-American periodical The Tocqueville Review, serving as editor from 1978 to 1991. Dr Pitts spent his last years devoted to his memoir, Return to Base, which he dedicated to the crew of Penny Ante.
Dr Pitts was Professor of Sociology at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, from 1964. He did pioneering sociological work on marginality, deviance and conformity.
"Some occupational roles...create marginality in their incumbents by being on the fringes of professional status, yet unable to claim commonality with the traditional professions." [Pitts, 1961, p.710]
"Another level of marginality is exemplified by the adult immigrant...another source...is intermarriage between different nationality or ethnic groups and/or social classes...such a marriage reflects a certain alienation, on the part of each spouse, from his or her original milieu." [Pitts, 1961, p.710]
"Error and illness are two forms of deviance that apparently derive from failures to reach efficiency and/or effectiveness...illness is also a lack of control...over the body and the mind that renders the individual incapable of realizing his value commitments...Even 'completely physical' illness can be an escape from onerous duty." [Pitts 1961, p.702]
"Illness...is the essence of powerlessness...an expression of nature's power over man...in a society [like the USA] stressing the spirit's mastery over matter, illness is considered...a failure of the will...the ill person is more alienated from his society...[and must take] vigorous steps to get well." [Pitts, 1961, p.705]
[edit] Publications
- 1961: Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, Two Volumes in One, with Talcott Parsons (Editor), & Kaspar D. Naegele, New York: The Free Press
- 1963: In Search of France co-authored with Stanley Hoffmann; Cambridge, Harvard University Press
- 1964: Social Approaches to Mental Patient Care, with Schwartz, Morris S. and Charlotte Green Schwartz; co-authors: Mark G. Field, Elliot G. Mishler, Simon Olshansky, Jesse R. Pitts, Rhona Rapoport and Warren T. Vaughan, Jr.: New York and London, Columbia University Press
- 1972: Strike at Oakland University, Change (Feb. 1972), p.18.
- 1980: Talcott Parsons: the sociologist as the last Puritan, American Sociologist, 00, p.64.
- 1986: Celebrating Tocqueville's Democracy in America, 1835-1985, with Olivier Zunz [eds.]; Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia
- 2004: Return to Base: Memoirs of a B-17 Co-pilot, Kimbolton, England, 1943-1944 xix, 280 p., 17pp. of plates: ill., maps, Charlottesville, VA: Howell Press, 2004.
