Norman Birnbaum, is one of the better lefty sociologists from way back. Started publishing in the late 50's, in the predecessor pubs that became New Left Review. Many articles in The Nation, Partisan Review and other venues of the yrs. Brilliant piece on the Sociology of Knowledge, reviewing Mannheim, Lukacs, Lucien Goldmann, etc. in his volume, published by Oxford Univ. Press circa 1970, "Towards A Critical Sociology, " I believe. I hope his books are not all out of print. A search at the pigsite bn.com should find at least five, hopefully as I say, not all O.P. The last I took a good look at was published by Pantheon in the mid-80's, a summary and critique of scholarship from left-liberals and communitarians in US acdemia from Robert Bellah, Lasch, etc. A subsequent short collection also from Oxford Univ. Press I've seen remaindered for 4.98.
Michael Pugliese