America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.

Riesman was a major public intellectual as well as a sociologist representing an early example of what sociologists now call "public sociology. This internal logic both sets the goals of the research university and produces its future professors. "


American higher education
In addition to his many other publications Riesman was also a noted commentator on American higher education publishing with his seminal work The Academic Revolution co-written with Christopher Jencks.

After graduating from Harvard Law School where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review Riesman clerked for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis from 1935-1936. David Riesman (September 22 1909 – May 10 2002) was a sociologist attorney and educator. He also taught at the University of Buffalo Law School and at the University of Chicago.