Paul Goodman (September 9, 1911 - August 2, 1972) was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd (1960) and an activist in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement. He graduated from The City College of New York and completed his Ph.D. work at the University of Chicago. (He was not officially awarded his Ph.D. until 1953).