Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he completed both BA (1954) and MA (1956) degrees in sociology. In 1957, he went to the United States to study at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a research assistant to Seymour Martin Lipset. He received his PhD in sociology in 1958, completing the degree in the record time of 18 months. Academic career 1958–1978: Professor, Columbia University 1978: Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution 1979–1980: Senior Advisor to the White House 1980–present: University Professor, Professor of International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, The George Washington University 1987–1990: Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School 1989: Founder and President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics 1993–present: Founder and Director of the Communitarian Network 1994–1995: President, American Sociological Association Work Etzioni is the author of over 30 books. About half are academic, the most important of which is The Active Society, and half written for the public, especially The Spirit of Community. His early academic work focused on organizational theory, resulting in the often-cited A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations, published in 1961. The book was well received in academic circles. A book review in Political Science Quarterly by Peter Fricke called it "a principal text for students of organizations." The book established Etzioni's academic credentials and led to many studies, which Etzioni reviewed and included in a revised edition of the same title, published in 1975. He expressed the same basic ideas in a much shorter book, Modern Organizations, which was translated into a large number of languages. Much of Etzioni's best-known work is about communitarianism. According to Etzioni, communitarianism is centered on the communal definition of good. It thus stresses the role of community in social and political life and institutions. It rose in response to libertarianism and some forms of contemporary liberalism, both of which are centered on liberty and individual rights. Etzioni contrasts his version of what he calls "liberal communitarianism" with that championed by some East Asian public intellectuals, who extolled social obligations and accorded much less weight to liberty and individual rights. Liberal communitarianism, as developed by Etzioni, formulated criteria for developing public policies that enable societies to deal with conflicts between the common good and individual rights. These include: (1) no major change in governing public policies and norms is justified unless society encounters serious challenges, (2) limitations on rights