Ethos and Espionage in Jaworski’s Erving Goffman and the Cold War

Abstract Jaworski’s Erving Goffman and the Cold War offers a fresh approach to Goffman studies via its examination of Goffman’s work as a unique response to the “ethos” of the American Cold War. This paper charts the genealogy of Jaworski’s approach by examining its roots—from Romanticism to phenomenology and on to Goffman’s frame analysis—of “ethos” as an intellectual strategy in the sociology of knowledge; and it explores the book’s examination of spies and espionage as a key theme in Goffman’s work.