Archives at the Margins of Sociology: G.D.H. Cole and Horace Cayton

• In Event: The Unpublished History of Sociology

Abstract

This paper will explore commonalities found in the archives of two scholars who, in different ways, existed on the margins of sociology. The English socialist intellectual, G.D.H. Cole, whose papers are held at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, occupied a position of what I have termed ‘semi-alienation’ from the emerging British discipline of his day. He welcomed the development of sociology, and interacted with it, yet was also alienated from its emerging emphasis on value-freedom. Across the Atlantic, Horace Cayton, whose archives are held at Woodson Regional Library in the Washington Heights area of Chicago, seemingly occupied a very different position. He was of course trained in the discipline and made significant contributions, but come the 50s and 60s, the period mostly covered in the archive, Cayton is moving between roles within and on the margins of the discipline. His activity is primarily focused on producing his, never completed, biography of Richard Wright, itself a reflection of his commitment to the connection between literature and sociology. Drawing commonalities between these two divergent thinkers, I will show the value of the archives of individual scholars as a means to map the history of sociology from the margins.

Author

• Matt Dawson, University of Glasgow