William Josiah Goode

William Josiah Goode (August 30, 1917 – May 4, 2003) was an American sociologist and the 63rd President of the American Sociological Association. Goode's most known work was his 1963 text World Revolution and Family Patterns. Goode was a recipient, on two occasions, of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Life and career On August 30, 1917, Goode was born in Houston, Texas. In a review for Social Forces N. B. Ryder described the book as "the book of the year in sociology" and asserted that "nobody of stature in sociology will ignore this work". Reviewing the book in Population and Development Review, Gavin W. Jones remarked that while it "enriches our appreciation of the widely divergent trends in divorce and the complexity of situations in different parts of the world, it does not take us very far in reaching a general theory of divorce".

The Celebration of Heroes In 1978, the University of California Press published Goode's The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Social Control System. The Celebration of Heroes was the book "of which he was proudest" and represented "a keystone to his overarching analysis of the subtleties of social forces involved in the production and distribution of prestige, honor, and respect". Marie Marschall Fuller, writing in Social Science Quarterley, called the book "probably the first extensive treatise on prestige as a social control system influencing large-scale organizations and agencies as well as small-group interaction". Fuller praised it as "a beautiful book composed with intelligence, logic, insight, and a delightful writing style". Reviewing the book in the Journal of Social History, Raymond Grew suggested that The Celebration of Heroes "reflected a painful loss of optimism familiar in contemporary America", elaborating "no reader, now or later, is likely to doubt that this book was written by an American sociologist in the period after World War II". Grew praised Goode's writing style and evident knowledge of the topic but criticized the book by stating that "this study remains fundamentally uncomparative because the social context from which examples are taken is never more than thinly sketched".

Personal life and death Goode was married to Lenore J. Weitzman, a professor of sociology and law at George Mason University. Together, Goode and Weitzman had three children: Erich, Barbara, and Andrew. Erich also went on to be a professor of sociology. Goode had one sister, Rosalie Grizzle. Goode's previous two marriages, to Josephine Cannizzo and Ruth Rosenbaum, both resulted in divorce.

Goode died of an abdominal blood clot at George Washington University Hospital on May 4, 2003. His funeral was held at the Columbarium of Arlington National Cemetery. In an obituary, Goode was remembered as someone who "encouraged and promoted the careers of his women graduate students" and "an early supporter of the nascent women’s movement, both intellectually and personally". The William J. Goode International Fellowship was established in memory of Goode.

Selected works Articles Goode, W. J. (1957). Community within a community: The professions. American sociological review, 22(2), 194–200. Goode, W. J. (1959). The theoretical importance of love. American Sociological Review, 38–47.

Books