Editing Talcott Parsons (section)

===Harvard===
In 1927, after a year of teaching at Amherst (1926–1927), Parsons entered Harvard, as an instructor in the Economics Department,<ref>Edward S. Mason, "The Harvard Department of Economics from the Beginning to World War II." ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' 97. 1982. pp. 383–433.</ref> where he followed F.&nbsp;W. Taussig's lectures on economist [[Alfred Marshall]] and became friends with the economist historian [[Edwin Gay]], the founder of [[Harvard Business School]]. Parsons also became a close associate of [[Joseph Schumpeter]] and followed his course General Economics. Parsons was at odds with some of the trends in Harvard's department which then went in a highly-technical and a mathematical direction. He looked for other options at Harvard and gave courses in "Social Ethics" and in the "Sociology of Religion".

The chance for a shift to sociology came in 1930, when Harvard's Sociology Department was created{{sfn|Dillon|2013|page=157}} under Russian scholar [[Pitirim Sorokin]]. Parsons became one of the new department's two instructors, along with [[Carle C. Zimmerman|Carle Zimmerman]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harvard University Archives |title=Papers of Talcott Parsons |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/4/resources/3958 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214184035/https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/4/resources/3958 |archive-date=14 February 2023 |access-date=5 January 2024 |website=HOLLIS for Archival Discovery}}</ref> Parsons established close ties with [[biochemist]] and sociologist [[Lawrence Joseph Henderson]], who took a personal interest in Parsons' career at Harvard. Parsons became part of L.&nbsp;J. Henderson's famous Pareto study group, in which some of the most important{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} intellectuals at Harvard participated, including [[Crane Brinton]], [[George C. Homans]], and [[Charles P. Curtis]]. Parsons wrote an article on Pareto's theory<ref>Talcott Parsons, "Pareto's Central Analytical Scheme". In Talcott Parsons, ''The Early Essays'' Edited C. Camic. Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]], 1991.</ref> and later explained that he had adopted the concept of "social system" from reading Pareto. Parsons also made strong connections with two other influential intellectuals with whom he corresponded for years: economist [[Frank H. Knight]] and businessman [[Chester Barnard]]. The relationship between Parsons and Sorokin turned sour. A pattern of personal tensions was aggravated by Sorokin's deep dislike for American civilization, which he regarded as a sensate culture that was in decline. Sorokin's writings became increasingly anti-scientistic in his later years, widening the gulf between his work and Parsons' and turning the increasingly positivistic American sociology community against him. Sorokin also tended to belittle all sociology tendencies that differed from his own writings, and by 1934 was quite unpopular at Harvard.

Some of Parsons' students in the department of sociology were Robin Williams Jr., [[Robert K. Merton]], Kingsley Davis, Wilbert Moore, Edward C. Devereux, Logan Wilson, Nicholas Demereth, John Riley Jr., and Mathilda White Riley. Later cohorts of students included Harry Johnson, Bernard Barber, Marion Levy and [[Jesse R. Pitts]]. Parsons established, at the students' request, an informal study group which met year after year in Adams' house. Toward the end of Parsons' career, German systems theorist [[Niklas Luhmann]] also attended his lectures.

In 1932, Parsons bought a farmhouse near the small town of [[Acworth, New Hampshire|Acworth]], but Parsons often, in his writing, referred to it as "the farmhouse in [[Alstead, New Hampshire|Alstead]]". The farmhouse was a very humble structure with almost no modern utilities. Still, it became central to Parsons' life, and many of his most important works were written there.

In the academic year of 1939–1940 Parsons and Schumpeter conducted an informal faculty seminar at Harvard, which discussed the concept of [[rationality]]. Among the participants were D.&nbsp;V. McGranahan, [[Abram Bergson]], [[Wassily Leontief]], [[Gottfried Haberler]], and [[Paul Sweezy]]. Schumpeter contributed the essay "Rationality in Economics", and Parsons submitted the paper "The Role of Rationality in Social Action" for a general discussion.<ref>See Robert Loring Allen, ''Opening Doors: The Life and Work of Joseph Schumpeter Vol 2: America.'' New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1991. p. 98. An edited version of Schumpeter's seminar paper was published in ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft.'' Vol.140. no.4. December 1984: 577–93.</ref>