The "Bellah Affair" at Princeton. Scholarly Reputation, Disciplinary Differentiation, and Controlled Oblivion

The so-called “Bellah affair at Princeton” began in March 1973 when a harsh but nonetheless ordinary academic fight over the appointment of Robert N. Bellah as a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton found its way to the wider public sphere. In a violation of academic etiquette, newspapers had direct access to confidential evaluations of Bellah’s work and his public renown appeared to be in jeopardy. Using published and unpublished evidence, the paper shows how two different interpretations of academic freedom were put forward by Bellah’s supporters and opponents, and how the sociological profession understood the whole episode as a disciplinary attack on the part of the hard sciences and historical disciplines. In the end, the emerging symbolic constellation led all the relevant actors to develop a shared interest in the rapid oblivion of the episode: the Bellah affair became a lose-lose game which all the players wanted to end as rapidly as possible. This outcome was not pre-determined; rather, it was the product of a reputational struggle played within and without the media. The state of the American sociological field in the 1970s, unexpected coalitions between relevant actors, the changing tone of the articles published by the mass media, and some contingent events are all factors which help in explaining the “controlled oblivion” of the Bellah affair.