The C. Wright Mills Award is a distinction awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Social Problems to the author of the book that "best exemplifies outstanding social science research and a great understanding the individual and society in the tradition of the distinguished sociologist, C. Wright Mills."[1]
| Year | Name | Book Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | David Matza | Delinquency and Drift |
| 1965 | Robert Boguslaw | The New Utopians |
| 1966 | Jerome H. Skolnick | Justice Without Trial |
| 1967 | Co-Winner, Elliot Liebow | Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Street Corner Men |
| 1967 | Co-Winner, Travis Hirschi and Hanan C. Selvin | Delinquency Research: An Appraisal of Analytical Methods |
| 1968 | Gerald D. Suttles | The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City |
| 1969 | Laud Humphreys | Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places |
| 1970 | Jacqueline P. Wiseman | Stations of the Lost: The Treatment of Skid Row Alcoholics |
| 1971 | Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward | Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare |
| 1972 | David M. Gordon | Theories of Poverty and Underemployment: Orthodox, Radical, and Dual Labor Market Perspectives |
| 1973 | Co-Winner, James B. Rule | Private Lives and Public Surveillance: Social Control in the Computer Age |
| 1973 | Co-Winner, Isaac D. Balbus | The Dialectics of Legal Repression: Black Rebels before the American Courts |
| 1974 | Harry Braverman | Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century |
| 1975 | Mary O. Furner | Advocacy and Objectivity: A Crisis in the Professionalization of American Social Science |
| 1976 | Janice E. Perlman | The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro |
| 1977 | Rosabeth Moss Kanter | Men and Women of the Corporation |
| 1978 | Walter Korpi | The Working Class in Welfare Capitalism: Work, Unions and Politics in Sweden |
| 1979 | Theda Skocpol | States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China |
| 1980 | Michael Lipsky | Street Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services |
| 1981 | Judith Lewis Herman | Father-Daughter Incest |
| 1982 | Paul Starr | The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry |
| 1983 | Manuel Castells | The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements |
| 1984 | Co-Winner, Michael Useem | The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. |
| 1984 | Co-Winner, Richard Madsen | Morality and Power in a Chinese Village |
| 1985 | Viviana Zelizer | Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children |
| 1986 | Co-Winner, Diana E. H. Russell | The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women |
| 1986 | Co-Winner, Charles Tilly | The Contentious French: Four Centuries of Popular Struggle |
| 1986 | Co-Winner, Joyce Rothschild and J. Allen Whitt | The Cooperative Workplace: Potentials and Dilemmas of Organizational Democracy and Participation |
| 1987 | William J. Wilson | The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy |
| 1988 | Co-Winner, Iván Szelényi | Socialist Entrepreneurs: Embourgeoisement in Rural Hungary |
| 1988 | Co-Winner, John R. Sutton | Stubborn Children: Controlling Delinquency in the United States, 1640-1981 |
| 1989 | Co-Winner, Doug McAdam | Freedom Summer |
| 1989 | Co-Winner, Alan Wolfe | Whose Keeper? Social Science and Moral Obligation |
| 1990 | Patricia Hill Collins | Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment |
| 1991 | Sharon Zukin | Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World |
| 1992 | Roger Lancaster | Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua |
| 1993 | David Wagner | Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community |
| 1994 | Robert Thomas | What Machines Can’t Do: Politics and Technology in the Industrial Enterprise |
| 1995 | Co-Winner, Philippe Bourgois | In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio |
| 1995 | Co-Winner, Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro | Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality |
| 1996 | Steven Epstein | Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge |
| 1997 | John L. Hagan and Bill McCarthy | Mean Streets: Youth Crime and Homelessness |
| 1998 | Monica J. Casper | The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery |
| 1999 | Mitchell Duneier | Sidewalk |
| 2000 | Michèle Lamont | The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration |
| 2001 | Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo | Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence |
| 2002 | Co-Winner, Gordon Lafer | The Job Training Charade |
| 2002 | Co-Winner, David Naguib Pellow | Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago |
| 2003 | Sharon Hays | Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform |
| 2004 | Mario Luis Small | Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio |
| 2005 | Pun Ngai | Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace |
| 2006 | Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh | Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor |
| 2007 | Daniel Jaffee | Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival |
| 2008 | Martín Sánchez-Jankowski | Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor Neighborhoods |
| 2009 | Mario Luis Small | Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life |
| 2010 | Mark Hunter | Love in the Time of AIDS: Inequality, Gender, and Rights in South Africa |
| 2011 | Shamus Khan[2] | Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School |
| 2012 | Cybelle Fox[3] | Three Worlds of Relief: Race, Immigration, and the American Welfare State from the Progressive Era to the New Deal |
| 2013 | Nancy DiTomaso[4] | The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality Without Racism |
| 2014 | Laurence Ralph[5] | Renegade Dreams: Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago |
| 2015 | Carla Shedd[6] | Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice |
| 2016 | Roberto G. Gonzales[7] | Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America |
| 2017 | Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon[8] | Juárez Girls Rising: Transformative Education in Times of Dystopia |
| 2018 | Ranita Ray[9] | The Making of a Teenage Service Class: Poverty and Mobility in an American City |
| 2019 | Adia Harvey Wingfield[10] | Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy |
| 2020 | Danielle T. Raudenbush | Health Care Off the Books: Poverty, Illness, and Strategies for Survival in Urban America |
| 2021 | Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. | Getting Something to Eat in Jackson: Race, Class, and Food in the American South |
| 2022 | Michael L. Walker | Indefinite: Doing Time in Jail |