Edward Shils

Edward Shils (1 July 1911 - 23 January 1995) an American sociologist considered a specialist in the works of the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920). Shils served with the British Army and the United States Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War and then spent his academic career mainly at the University of Chicago.

The 'Gould Report'

Shils was a member of the study group behind a report published in 1977 by the intelligence connected Institute for the Study of Conflict alleging a Marxist penetration into British academia. Considering the ideological orientation of the study group, The Observer commented that: ‘The study group seems to believe with Professor Hayek and his disciple, Sir Keith Joseph, that true liberty is possible only in a capitalist, free market civilisation.’

The Times reported the report’s findings that: ‘radical minorities...often disagreed with each other, but they had a common distaste, bordering at times upon sheer hatred for the liberal, tolerant society in which they moved.’ The Times published extracts of the report, but also criticised it as having an ‘alarmist tone which goes beyond his evidence.’

Robert Young, one of the academics targeted in the report, called it ‘the closest British academic life got to a McCarthy-ite witch-hunt of radicals.’ Young had written an piece on 'the ideological foundations of functionalist sociology' which was published in the Cambridge journal Science or Society? in June 1971. According to Young, Shils had sent a copy to Julius Gould who subsequently attacked Young in his ICS report. According to Young, 'Shils was a member of the set of American conservative intellectuals who made up the Congress of Cultural Freedom, which published Encounter and various other periodicals, all financed by the CIA.'

Shils's Fellowship at King's College was subsequently terminated, partly as a result of Young's protest. Young claimed that Shils had 'made little contribution to the academic life of the college and used it as a base for CIA-related investigation of radicals. It was claimed on Shils' behalf that he was of considerable help to graduate students, and I was able (in my capacity as Tutor for Graduate Students) to show that he had made himself remarkably unavailable to them.'