[Music] [Music] one of America's greatest political sociologists Charles wri Mills was born August 28th 1916 in Waco Texas to Charles Grover Mills and Francis Ursula right Mills graduated from Dallas Technical High School in 1934 upon graduating high school Mills attended the University of Texas at Austin where he did extremely well in philosophy sociology cultural anthropology social psychology and economics in 1939 he attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he received his PhD in 1945 Mill started a job as a research associate at Columbia University's Bureau of Applied social research after a year he became an assistant professor in the University's sociology Department in addition to being a professor Mills was the author of four books that defined his sociologic perspective the new men of power White Collar the power elite and the sociological imagination both the new men of power and the white collar shared the same ideas of his theories Mills believed that America was separated into three different classes and the upper class was in control the other classes were made to think that their opinions were important but only the upper class was what really mattered Mills believed America ran on corporations and led by white collar workers well if we're going to go back to markx um his idea well what he said was that ultimately there will be a struggle back and forth and back and forth but that the majority of people the under you know the lower class proletariat will eventually rise up and will have Revolution and they will seize power from essentially you know the guys who have that power Mills proceeded to explain his theory on power with his third book titled the power elite Mill said that the upper class was led by military political and economic leaders that provide the means to produce wealth Mills stated that military leaders and politicians recognize themselves as being separate and superior to the rest of society um again as far as power elite uh class politics is tough right if you want to run for office you are more than entitled to run for office but you also have to understand there are people in place who can either help you do that or they can hinder you in a lot of ways right uh you look at what uh what are now called super political action committees super packs right they form themselves and generate millions and millions and millions of dollars throw that money behind a candidate and a candidate who has that type of buying power just in strictly strictly in terms of media advertising can put his or her name in front of so many more people than you Mills wrote his final book in 1959 he stepped away from his ideas of power and focused on the comparisons between personal issues and social issues the sociological imagination gives the person possessing it to see beyond their personality to wider social structures throughout his life Mills had three wives and a child with each wife Mills suffered a heart attack on March 20th 1962 Mills was 45 when he died in today's society Charles Wright Mills and his theories are studied by many sociologists [Music] [Music]