ABSTRACT
In academic life, there are people who are known for their writings, others for their teaching skills, and still others by the impact of their personalities. Despite the substantial achievements of Herbert Blumer in all three areas, he best fits into the last category. He was, for the author at least, Homo Americanus, the personification of the American encounter with social science. Social interaction is the source of social order. It is the sense of communion that makes possible doing things together that otherwise cannot be done alone-that includes everything from science, to religion, to politics. The other areas in which Blumer weighed in heavily against scientism, or better said, physical reductionism, are the issues of social science in the conduct of public policy. Critiques of Research in the Social Sciences, Industrialization and Agent of Social Change, Movies and Conduct and Symbolic Interactionism are the works by Herbert Blumer.
