Norman Birnbaum (born July 21, 1926) is an American sociologist. He is an emeritus professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a member of the editorial board of The Nation.He was educated at New York City's public schools, at Williams College and has a doctorate in sociology from Harvard University. He has taught at The London School of Economics and Political Science, Oxford University, the University of Strasbourg, The Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research, and Amherst College. His academic work included the introduction of sociology to undergraduate curricula at Amherst and Oxford. A member of the founding editorial board of New Left Review, he has been active in politics on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been an advisor to US trade unions and members of the US Congress, as well as to a number of social movements and political parties in Europe. He contributes regularly to a number of publications, including El Pais in Spain, Open Democracy, and the German daily tageszeitung. He is presently writing a memoir.
Literary works
- The crisis of industrial society, 1969
- (With Gertrud Lenzer), Sociology and Religion, 1969.
- Toward a critical sociology, 1971
- helped to edit the "New Left Review"
- (Edited) Beyond The Crisis, 1976.
- Social Structure and The German Reformation, 1980.
- The Radical Renewal: The Politics Of Ideas In Modern America, 1988.
- Searching For The Light: Essays On Thought And Culture, 1993.
- After Progress: American Social Reform And European Socialism In The Twentieth Century, 2001.
