GORDON (Goldberg), MILTON M.

GORDON (Goldberg), MILTON M. (1918– ), U.S. sociologist. Born in Gardiner, Maine, Gordon taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Drew University, and Haverford and Wellesley Colleges before being appointed professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts in 1959. In 1986 he became professor emeritus of sociology. A specialist in the fields of social stratification and inter-group relations, he became widely known through his books Social Class in American Sociology (1958) and Assimilation in American Life (1964). The latter, which analyzes the role of race, religion, and national origin in American social organization, is remarkable for its differentiation between cultural and structural pluralism and the formulation of the concept of the "ethclass," referring to social ranking within an ethnic group. Gordon dealt with subjects of Jewish interest in several of his many papers and essays. They include "The Nature of Assimilation and the Theory of the Melting Pot," in Current Perspectives in Social Psychology by E.P. Hollander and R.G. Hunt (19672) and "Marginality and the Jewish Intellectual," in The Ghetto and Beyond: Essays on Jewish Life in America (ed. Peter I. Rose, 1969). He was general editor of the Ethnic Group in American Life series. Other books by Gordon include Human Nature, Class, and Ethnicity (1978) and The Scope of Sociology (1993). He also edited America as a Multicultural Society (with R. Lambert, 1981). (Werner J. Cahnmen / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)