Bell, Daniel (1919- )

US sociologist. He was editor of the report Toward the Year 2000 1968, which reflects his interest in contemporary history and social forecasting. In The End of Ideology 1960, he tried to show how the West, as a result of welfare state and mixed economy, had come to the ‘end of the ideological age’.

Bell claimed the conflict between ideologies was to be seen mainly in developing countries or on the international stage. In The Radical Right 1963 he offered an explanation of the anticommunist hysteria triggered by Senator Joe McCarthy in terms of the extremities of minorities that had not adjusted to pluralistic society. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society underlined his view of the importance of scientific and technical knowledge in social and political life and predicted greater power for scientific elites.

He taught at Columbia University 1958-69, when he became professor of sociology at Harvard University. Before his appointment to the academic staff at Columbia, he had been a journalist on the magazine Fortune.