Riverside Days: Recollection of Robert Nisbet as a Teacher

Robert Nisbet returned to full time teaching at the University of California, Riverside, in 1964, after ten years as Dean and Vice-Chancellor. The author was an undergraduate student in sociology at Riverside during the years 1965-67 and recalls Nisbet as a teacher. This was a prolific period in Nisbet's writing career and many of the ideas that appeared in his books were introduced and explored in the courses that he taught. Two of these courses - "Community" and "History and Systems of Sociology" - are discussed in detail. The presentation of the material in these courses provides insight into how Nisbet understood the themes of the sociological tradition and how he thought these were best communicated to students. The paper also considers how Nisbet, an avowed conservative, was perceived by some of his undergraduate students during a time of cultural ferment and political unrest in America. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.