ABSTRACT
Ruth Rosner was born on December 29, 1926, in Highland Falls, New York, a town near West Point of about 2,500, "including the inhabitants of the cemetery," as mother once described it, exhibiting her characteristic dry wit. The sharpness of mother's mind should be evident to anyone who has read her work. But let one to probe that mind a bit more deeply to reveal qualities that one might not otherwise think about when one hears the name Ruth Rosner Kornhauser. The chapter offers few personal reflections on some lesser-known aspects of mother's thinking and intellectual temperament. Hirschi also notes that the invitation to write the review had been extended by the American Journal of Sociology to mother who accepted it on the condition that Hirschi write the review with her. This conditional acceptance supports understanding that mother was simply unable, or believed she was unable, to continue any sort of meaningful academic life after her stroke.
