ABSTRACT
Talcott Parsons's work up to the 1950s is often linked to his two major books, The Structure of Social Action and The Social System. This chapter focuses on the time period between Structure and System. It highlights one of Parsons's predominant concerns between 1938 and 1945, namely, National Socialism. Parsons wrote a large number of radio broadcasts, lectures, speeches, and memoranda for various programs and associations destined to aid the war effort after World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, and the United States was drawn into it in December 1941. Scholarly comment and criticism in the last decade have paid some attention to Parsons's analysis of National Socialism. Parsons's sociology of National Socialism was embedded in vigorous contemporary social scientific discussion. Parsons argued that in the United States, National Socialism was frequently mistaken for a variant of an authoritarian regime soon to be mitigated by the normal political process.
