Coser, Lewis A.

Lewis A. Coser (1913-2003) began his career teaching at the University of Chicago followed by the University of California. Upon leaving California he went to teach for fifteen years at Brandeis University, where he founded the sociology department, before finally settling in at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He was the first sociologist to bring together the ideas of conflict theory and structural functionalism. He is a past American Sociologist Association president and author of many works, including Conflict and Consensus, Masters of Sociological Thought, and The Functions