Scope and Content Note
The papers of Amitai Werner Etzioni (1929-2023) span the years 1918-2023, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1968 and 1997. The collection focuses on Etzioni's work as a sociologist, educator, and leader of the Communitarian movement, and is arranged in two parts. Part I primarily reflects Etzioni's professional projects and writings chiefly produced between 1968 and 1984 at the Center for Policy Research and Columbia University. Part II largely covers the period between 1970 and 2000 and includes Etzioni's personal papers, writings, speaking engagements, professional projects, and his work at the Communitarian Network, among other organizations. Included in the papers are correspondence, memoranda, newsletters, newspaper and magazine clippings, printed matter, manuscripts and related material, notes, publicity, proposals, research material, reports, and press releases. Although most items in the collection are in English, some notes, manuscript drafts, and miscellaneous material are written in Hebrew and German. Further descriptions of each part follow.
Part I
Part I of the Amitai Etzioni papers spans the years 1918-1985, with the bulk of the materials concentrated in the period between 1968 and 1984. Materials document Etzioni's early professional work and are divided into the following series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Center for Policy Research, Writings, and Miscellany.
The largest portion of correspondence in Part I is found in the General Correspondence series and primarily chronicles Etzioni's career as director of the Center for Policy Research and as a professor at The George Washington University and Columbia University. The series also contains correspondence with publishers, government officials, and colleagues concerning professional conferences, research projects, and contemporary sociological issues. Additional subject-related correspondence is located in other series. Practically all of the correspondence in this series is professional in nature.
The Subject File consists of a large amount of general background material relating to Etzioni's writings and the work of the Center for Policy Research. Major topics include the Vietnam War, the student protest movement of the 1960s, social policy, research and development, energy, health care, crime, politics and government, education, family issues, capitalism, civil rights, mental health, taxation, science and technology, poverty, violence, economics, and voluntarism.
The Center for Policy Research series is divided into two groupings. The first grouping, an administrative file, contains financial papers, memoranda, newsletters, personnel policy files, press releases, publication lists, and miscellaneous material documenting the operation and procedures of the center during its first fifteen years. The second grouping, research projects, consists of files of project abstracts, ideas, and lists as well as research proposals and reports reflecting the center's basic mission of studying contemporary public policy. Individual research projects are arranged in a numerical sequence established by the center generally reflecting the order in which they were created. Appendix A of the finding aid has been compiled to list the projects alphabetically as well as by the number assigned to each project.
The Writings series is divided into two groupings, books and scholarly papers. Etzioni wrote nearly thirty major works and hundreds of shorter pieces. Of particular note in the books grouping included in Part I are files documenting Capital Corruption, Genetic Fix, Immodest Agenda, Social Problems, and Technological Shortcuts to Social Change. An unpublished work, "After Modern--What?" is also well represented. The scholarly papers grouping is an omnibus short writings file containing not only articles, essays, editorials, book reviews, letters to the editor, and other brief works, but also research proposals and reports, position papers, speeches, book chapters, outlines, ideas for articles and books, testimonies, and writings by colleagues with whom Etzioni collaborated. The files are arranged in a numerical sequence established by the author and generally reflect the order in which they were created. Of the seven hundred assigned numbers, approximately fifteen percent appears to be unused or assigned to missing files. Appendix B to the register contains an alphabetical list of the known titles in this grouping and their assigned numbers, derived from an inventory created by the author located in box 198. The word title, however, is used in a generic sense since the list includes general descriptions, subject categories, and personal names in addition to titles used in published works.
The Miscellany series is arranged into four groupings: academic file, biographical material, trips file, and White House advisory position. Etzioni's teaching career at Columbia University is documented in the academic file by classroom material, minutes and notes on the Department of Sociology, files on the Bureau of Applied Social Research, and files on research projects predating the founding of the Center for Policy Research. The grouping also contains a small amount of material on Etzioni's tenure at The George Washington University. Résumés, photographs, an interview, printed matter citing Etzioni, and material from his graduate school days constitute the biographical material. Correspondence and related material in the trips file chronicle his activity as a public speaker and participant at professional conferences over a twenty-year period. The final grouping contains correspondence and data collected through public opinion polls on a variety of topics during Etzioni's service as a senior White House advisor during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Part II
Part II documents both Etzioni's professional career during the last four decades of his life, and, to a lesser extent, his personal and family life. Spanning the period 1920-2023, most of the material is concentrated between the years 1977-2000. Part II is organized in five series: Personal File, Speeches and Writings, Organizations and Institutions, General Correspondence, and a White House File.
The Personal File provides a broad overview of Etzioni’s career and family life, mostly between the years 1965 and 2000. Material includes awards, biographical sketches, student notes and writings from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of California, Berkeley, family and personal correspondence, collected publications citing or referencing Etzioni’s work, materials documenting personal travel and attendance at special events, photographs, and digitized home movies. Also represented are declassified FBI documents detailing a background investigation of Etzioni conducted in the 1970s as well as an article Etzioni wrote describing the experience. Material arranged under the “Personal Collection” comprises writings, notes, diaries, and correspondence largely written in Hebrew and dating from roughly the 1940s through the 1960s. While these files are photocopies of original documents held by The George Washington University Libraries, they supplement other personal material in the papers and provide insight into this period of Etzioni’s life; inventories of this material are included. Additional biographical material related to Etzioni can be found in the Speeches and Writings series within the subject file for My Brother's Keeper: A Memoir and a Message.
The Speeches and Writings series comprises book manuscripts, speaking engagement files, and a variety of shorter scholarly papers, written primarily in English, with some Hebrew and German, largely between 1965 and 2005. Many of the works represented in the series are coauthored with sociologists and policy experts from a variety of institutions, and, to a lesser extent, with Etzioni’s son, Oren Etzioni, on the topic of artificial intelligence. Book manuscripts particularly well represented in the series include The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics, The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society, The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society, and Etzioni’s memoir, My Brother's Keeper: A Memoir and a Message. As in Part I, the scholarly papers heading comprises articles, essays, editorials, letters to the editor, research proposals and reports, and position papers, and are largely arranged in an alpha-numeric sequence established by Etzioni. Researchers should note that gaps between numbers are present throughout the grouping; inventories with detailed descriptions of the numbered papers are filed in box 328. Unnumbered scholarly papers are arranged chronologically at the end of the grouping. Speaking engagement files detail Etzioni’s participation in local, national, and international conferences, meetings, radio, print, and television interviews, award ceremonies, and academic lectures. Additionally, Etzioni compiled a select number of his shorter works from 1959 to 1979 into bound volumes, which serve as a concise reference to his scholarship during this period.
The Organizations and Institutions series documents Etzioni’s activities as a founder, director, and member of various academic and professional organizations related to the study of sociology or socioeconomics. The majority of the series comprises the files of the Communitarian Network and the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, both founded by Etzioni at The George Washington University during his tenure as University Professor. These organizations sought to strengthen the moral character of society and to promote communitarian ideas through conferences, lectures, research projects, and publications, such as The Responsive Community: Rights and Responsibilities and numerous position papers. The series also chronicles Etzioni’s teaching career at The George Washington University and Columbia University, as well as his efforts to develop the field of socioeconomics while serving as a visiting professor at the Harvard University School of Business Administration. Also included are files related to research projects and the administrative operation of the Center for Policy Research, as well as Etzioni’s term as president of the American Sociological Association (1994-1995). A smaller volume of materials document Etzioni’s involvement with organizations such as the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, the Bureau of Social Science Research, and the World Bank.
The General Correspondence series pertains to a variety of topics, projects, and positions held by Etzioni and largely covers the period 1970-2001. The majority of the series documents the work of the Communitarian Network, the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, and the Center for Policy Research, as well as Etzioni’s academic career at The George Washington University and Columbia University. The series also includes correspondence with publishers and colleagues, both at the aforementioned institutions and beyond, which concern professional conferences, research projects, publications, policy issues, and contemporary affairs. Additional subject-related correspondence is filed in other series. Nearly all of the correspondence in the series is professional in nature.
The White House File documents Etzioni’s role as senior advisor in the Carter administration from January 1979 to June 1980. Etzioni reported to Richard Harden, Special Assistant to the President for Information Management, and provided policy advice on topics such as reindustrialization, tax policy, unemployment, inflation, welfare reform, energy, and refugee resettlement. Also present is material related to the Executive Office of the President’s efforts to modernize its use of technology and to create a tracking system for various projects. Additionally, the series provides insight into Etzioni’s role as an advisor to Walter F. Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign.