Bogdan Denitch

Bogdan Denitch (August 9, 1929 – March 28, 2016) was an American sociologist of Yugoslav origin. He was a leading authority on the political sociology of the former Yugoslavia, and served as professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) from 1973 until his retirement in 1994. Denitch was active in democratic left politics throughout his life, joining the Young People's Socialist League at age 18, and later co-founding the Democratic Socialists of America. From 1983 through 2004 he organized the annual Socialist Scholars Conference in New York. Since the 1990s he has been an advocate for human rights and an opponent of nationalism in the former Yugoslavia.

Denitch was born Bogdan Denis Denić, in Sofia, Bulgaria, to parents of Serbian background. His father was a Yugoslav diplomat, who was forced into exile by the Nazis and then by Marshal Josip Broz Tito's communist regime after World War II. The family emigrated to the United States in 1946. He enrolled in CUNY (then City College) in 1947, and at age 18 joined the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), then the youth affiliate of the social-democratic Socialist Party of America, led by Norman Thomas. He helped lead that organization into a merger with the Trotskyist-communist Socialist Youth League to form the Young Socialist League in 1954. He learned machinist skills at Metal Trades High School at night while studying at City College, worked as a journeyman machinist and tool and die maker for 13 years, and was an activist in the International Association of Machinists. His machinist union card gave him mobility, and he moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1958. He was a member of the San Francisco Central Labor Council, and was active in the NAACP and CORE from 1948 to 1964.

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