Stanley Aronowitz died this week at eighty-eight. He hated work, loved life, and brought his overflowing, exuberant approach to social problems to picket lines, classrooms, and vacation. A fighting left needs more people like him.

Socialists today should reject the kind of neutrality that conservatives praise Nathan Glazer for. But we shouldn’t confuse that neutrality with empirical rigor. Erik Olin Wright was confident enough in his political commitments to put them under the microscope. We should be, too.