A Sutudy on C.Wright Mills　－A Chapter to the History of American Sociology－

This paper meticulously studies the academic achivements of C. Wright Mills (1916-1962), who is known as an "unorthodox" sociologist in the U.S.A. To begin with, I shall give a glance at his life and achivement. Next,in order to elucidate his views on sociology and methodology for social sciences, I shall treat The Sociological Imagination (1959), and Character and Social Structure (1953), which he wrote with Hans H. Gerth(1908- ), who was his mentor while he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. Further by examining his so-called "triology on classes", The New Men of Power; America's Labor Leaders (1948), White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951), and The Power Elite(1956), works which brought to light disorders of modern American society, I shall try to understand his analysis of social classes in modern America, more accurately, the analysis of the labor leaders class, the new middle class, and the ruling class. I shall also consider the thrust of his theory of mass society on which he put emphasis. As a conclusion I shall point out some problems and difficulties with his views, comparing them with some other scholars' views