Sociological Imagination

The Process 0iinking Sociologically The Sociological Imagination 'The first fruit of the [sociological] imagination -and the first lesson of [Sociology] is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances." C. Wright Mills, 1959. Personal Stories of Divorce "We just could not get things together financially. We constantly fought over money, or the lack of it. I worked two jobs and she worked as well. We just didn't have time for each other and when we did, we argued about bills. It just got to be too much for me -for both of us." " It came without warning. Everything sort of fell apart in November, not long after we built a retaining wall in the back of the house. We had a gigantic rain storm that washed out the wall and I guess I got pretty upset. After that, Dale got a big promotion and started coming home late every night ... I think what happened is that he thought I didn't love him ... That was the beginning of the end. Maybe if the retaining wall hadn't let go, maybe things could have held up better." A look at Divorce as a larger societal issue ~=ee -c ,... 0'" i ::::;E;w nz 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Year FIGURE 12·1 Annual divorce rate, United States. 1860-1992. 1860 to 1920: divorces per 1.000 existing marriages. 1920 to 1992: divorces per 1.000 married women age 15 and over. (Sources:for 1860-1988. Andrew J. Cherlin. Marriage. Divorce. Remarriage. rev. and enlarged ed.• Harvard University Press. Cambridge. Mass .• 1992; for 1989-1992. U.S. National Center ior Health Statistics. Monthly Vital Statistics Report. vol, 41. no. 13. M Annual Summarv of Births. Marriages. Divorces. and Deaths: United States. 1992:' U.S. -----------_---'c~C>3.U,,~.~.cn<>o~;;nn OfiiCQ ,,."'chio