Sara Diamond (1986)

Writer and Lawyer

As of this writing, in 2010, I have drifted far afield from academic sociology. I still like to think that my life was forever impacted by having gone to graduate school, so long ago.

My dissertation became my second book, Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States, published in 1995 by the Guilford Press.

I published two other books after that, then donated my archives on right-wing movements to the Bancroft Library and retired from doing research and writing on the subject in 1998. I stopped doing the work simply because it was unsustainable for me personally and financially. I was unable to get a full-time teaching position in the bay area and I could not afford to continue to work as a part-time adjunct at Cal State Hayward, which I did for five years.

In 2000 I went to law school, and as soon as I passed the bar exam, I established my own solo law practice, in the areas of estate planning, probate and trust administration. My office is in downtown Berkeley, and about half my clients are UC employees. I hear from them about the many ways in which the university is no longer what it used to be, let alone what it was intended to be. I feel both sad about that and glad that I transitioned out of academia. I like being an entrepreneur, and I enjoy the field of law I'm in. I do no litigation and a lot of counseling with a diverse group of people, including many who are in the midst of health problems and other crises.

I rarely get a chance to read social science any more. I mostly read fiction, and I garden, knit, and tend to my house and partner. Aside from work, my private life is pretty all-consuming. I sometimes miss having a rigorous intellectual life, but not often.

Dissertation Title
Right-Wing Movements in the United States, 1945-1952
Dissertation Book Title
Roads to dominion : right-wing movements and political power in the United States
New York