1 | Name: | Dr. Sidney Verba | |
Institution: | Harvard University | ||
Year Elected: | 2003 | ||
Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
Subdivision: | 304. Jurisprudence and Political Science | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Deceased | ||
Birth Date: | 1932 | ||
Death Date: | March 4, 2019 | ||
Sidney Verba was one of the most prominent political scientists of his time. His books explored the many dimensions of political participation, and he is credited with profoundly changing the field of political behavior and the political science profession. When he won the Warren E. Miller prize, the citation asserted that he was "unsurpassed in the quality of his research, in his devotion to social science standards, and his concern with improving society through social science research." The Skytte Foundation, whose prize is one of the world's largest and most prestigious in the social sciences, said that Dr. Verba was chosen "for his penetrating empirical analysis of political participation and its significance for the functioning of democracy." In addition, he was a brilliant leader of the Harvard University Library, having brought the many libraries in that system into a collaborative working relationship. The Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library at Harvard for 23 years, Dr. Verba retired from these posts in 2007. A former president of the American Political Science Association, he published such works as Small Groups and Political Behavior (1961); The Civic Culture (1963); Caste, Race and Politics (1969); Participation in America (1972); Vietnam and the Silent Majority (1972); The Changing American Voter (1976); Participation and Political Equality (1978); Injury to Insult (1979); Equality in America (1985); Elites and the Idea of Equality (1987); Designing Social Inquiry (1994); Voice and Equality (1995); and The Private Roots of Public Action (2001). Sidney Verba died on March 4, 2019 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 86. |