Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Robert and Helen Lynd" - New World
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| + | '''Robert Staughton Lynd''' (born September 26, 1892 – November 1, 1970) and '''Helen Merrell Lynd''' (born March 17, 1896 – died January 30, 1982) were [[United States|American]] [[sociology|sociologists]], famous for their study ''Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture'' (1929), which became classic in American [[sociology]]. Lynds were among the first to apply the methods of [[cultural anthropology]] to the study of a modern Western city. They were the parents of the activist [[Staughton Lynd]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Life== | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Robert Lynd''' was born in New Albany, [[Indiana]]. He graduated from [[Princeton University]] with a B.A. in 1914, and started to work as an editor of the trade magazine ''Publishers Weekly''. He also worked for several publishing houses in [[New York City]]. His interest in [[theology]] and [[religion]] made him enroll into the [[Union Theological Seminary]] in New York City, where he received his Th.D. degree in 1923. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Helen Merrell''' was born in La Grange, [[Illinois]], in the family of Edward Tracy Merrell, the editor of the [[Congregationalist Church]] publication ''The Advance'', and Mabel Waite Merrell. Her parents tried to instate a strong [[religion|religious]] sense in their children, and Helen grew up with the commitment to humanitarian work. After high school her family moved to Framingham, [[Massachusetts]], where Helen enrolled into [[Wellesley College]]. She graduated in 1919 with B.A. in [[philosophy]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | After college, Merrell taught for a year at the Ossining School for Girls in Ossining, New York. It is during that time that she met Robert Lynd, with whom she developed intimate relationship. In 1921 she worked as a teacher at Miss Master's School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and in 1922 she received a master’s degree in [[history]] from [[Columbia University]] in New York. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In September 1922, Robert and Helen Lynd married. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lynds started to work on their project in Muncie, [[Indiana]] in late 1923, as commissioned by the Institute of Social and Religious Research. They stayed there for 15 months, living among and studying local community. Their book, ''Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture'' was published in 1929 and has received enormous success. It went through six printings in only its first year. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Based on the success of the study, Robert Lynd was named Professor of Sociology in the Graduate School of Political Sciences in the Department of Sociology at [[Columbia University]] in 1931. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia for the Middletown study. Helen Lynd joined the faculty of the newly founded [[Sarah Lawrence College]] in 1928, and would remain there until her retirement in 1964. She wrote numerous books on [[philosophy]], [[education]], and [[sociology]]. Robert Lynd was elected president of the Eastern Sociology Society in 1944, and was a member of the Sociological Research Association. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lynds had two children - their son [[Staughton Lynd|Staughton]] was born in 1929, and their daughter, Andrea, in 1934. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1944, Helen Lynd received Ph.D. in [[history]] and [[philosophy]] from [[Columbia University]]. Her dissertation was published in 1945 as ''England in the Eighteen-Eighties: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom''. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1930s and 1940s Lynds became outspoken leftists, advocating the need for class solidarity. They supported the position of the [[Soviet Union]] and criticized American attacks on [[communism|communists]]. During the [[McCarthy era]] trials Helen Lynd was questioned before a [[Senate]] investigating committee for her connections with [[Communist Party]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Robert Lynd retired from [[Columbia University]] in 1960. He died on November 1, 1970, in Warren, [[Connecticut]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Helen Lynd retired from [[Sarah Lawrence College]] in 1964, but continued to teach there until her death. She died in Warren, [[Ohio]], on January 30, 1982. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Work== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lynds started to collaborate together in early 1920s, in [[John D. Rockefeller, Jr.]]'s ''Committee on Social and Religious Surveys'' (CSRS). The organizations ultimate goal was to unite all the [[protestantism|protestant]] churches in the nation, through the network of common social services. In 1923 the CSRS changed the name into the ''Institute for Social and Religious Research'', which immediately started with the research and conducting of new studies. Lynds were selected to undertake a study of religious practices of people of one small American town. The choice eventually settled on Muncie, [[Indiana]] (studied under the pseudonym ''Middletown'') as a typical Midwestern town. | ||
| − | + | The Middletown study started in 1923, and lasted for 15 months. The town consisted of 38,000 people, predominantly white [[protestantism|Protestants]]. Lynds defined the goal of their study as to measure the changes in habits and behavior of people over the last thirty years. Although they were originally commissioned by the Institute for Social and Religious Research to strictly study [[religion|religious]] practices, Lynds went over their assignment and included different aspects of life into their research. | |
| + | |||
| + | Lynds collected information from different sources – direct observation, interviews, questionnaires, documentary materials, and statistics. They studied people’s habits and behavior in everyday situation, recording the time people got in and out of bed, whether they had a car and how it was used, how the laundry was done, how often someone went to church, what material was taught in school, and so on. | ||
| + | Lynds concluded that the Middletown has significantly changed in the light of [[industrialization]], and that the '[[consumer culture]]' increasingly influences people’s lives. Lynds were rather critical of America's growing preoccupation with money and consumption. | ||
| − | + | After the completion of their study, Lynds presented the results to the Institute of Social and Religious Research, but met with cold reception. The Institute refused to publish their work for it did not follow their initial agreement. In 1929 Harcourt, Brace Company finally published the work, which immediately became huge hit. The book went through six printings in only its first year. | |
| − | + | Robert and Helen Lynd returned to Muncie in 1935 for a follow-up study, and published their second book, ''Middletown in Transition'' (1937). This work was not as popular as the first one, but it also sold in big numbers. In it Lynds continued to criticize American preoccupation with consumerism, especially in the light of the growing advertisement industry. They saw a contradiction in American society – on one side Americans being independent and capable of organizing their own lives, and on the other so powerless and passive in the face of advertising. They also criticized American workers for not exhibiting class solidarity. | |
| − | == | + | ==Legacy== |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| + | The Middletown study was one of the first sociological analyses in the [[United States]] of social and cultural change in a modern, [[urbanism|urban]] community. Lynds’ book went on to become one of the most influential and most popular books of the twentieth century. In the years since, many scholars continued to study Muncie, following up on Lynds' work, making this local community perhaps the most studied in the nation. In the late 1970s, a team of sociologists led by [[Theodore Caplow]] went to Muncie to make a new study, some fifty years after the Lynds’ work. This became known as Middletown III. Then again in 1998-1999 Caplow returned to Muncie completing Middletown IV. | ||
| + | ==Publications== | ||
| − | '''Helen | + | * Lynd, Helen M. 1945. ''England in the eighteen-eighties: Toward a social basis for freedom''. London: Oxford University Press. |
| + | * Lynd, Helen M. 1945. ''Field work in college education''. New York: Columbia University Press. | ||
| + | * Lynd, Helen M. 1958. ''On shame and the search for identity''. New York: Harcourt, Brace. | ||
| + | * Lynd, Robert S. 1936. ''Democracy's third estate - the consumer''. New York: Academy of Political Science. | ||
| + | * Lynd, Robert S. 1939. ''Knowledge for what? The place of social science in American culture''. Princeton: Princeton university press. | ||
| + | * Lynd, Robert S. 1950. ''You can do it better democratically: A comment on the operation of politics and government as they affect the lives of most people.'' Detroit: UAW-CIO Education Dept. | ||
| + | * Lynd, Robert S. & Lynd, Helen. 1959 (original published in 1929). ''Middletown: A study in modern American culture''. Harvest Books. ISBN 0156595508 | ||
| + | * Lynd, Robert S. & Lynd, Helen. 1982 (original published in 1937). ''Middletown in transition: A study in cultural conflicts''. Harcourt, Brace. ISBN 0156595516 | ||
| − | == | + | ==References== |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| + | * BookRags.com. ''Encyclopedia of World Biography on Helen Merrell Lynd''. Retrieved on May 16, 2007, <http://www.bookrags.com/Helen_Lynd> | ||
| + | * BookRags.com. ''Middletown''. Retrieved on May 16, 2007, <http://www.bookrags.com/Middletown> | ||
| + | * Downs, Robert B. 1971. ''Books that changed America''. Signet. ISBN 0451611039 | ||
| + | * Encyclopedia Britannica. ''Robert Lynd and Helen Lynd''. Retrieved on May 17, 2007, <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049522/%2520Robert-Lynd-and-Helen-Lynd> | ||
| + | ==External Links== | ||
| + | * [http://www.bsu.edu/middletown/ Center for Middletown Studies] – at the [[Ball State University]] | ||
| + | * [http://www.bookrags.com/Middletown Middletown Studies] – On Middletown project on BookRags.com | ||
| + | * [http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/1seg4.htm On Middletown studies] – Interview with different people who participated in various Middletown studies (PBS website) | ||
| + | * [http://members.aol.com/dann01/lynds.html The Lynds Revisited] – An article on Lynds’ work by Richard Jensen | ||
{{Credits|Robert_Staughton_Lynd|115639410|Helen_Lynd|94284737|}} | {{Credits|Robert_Staughton_Lynd|115639410|Helen_Lynd|94284737|}} | ||
Revision as of 00:45, 17 May 2007
Robert Staughton Lynd (born September 26, 1892 – November 1, 1970) and Helen Merrell Lynd (born March 17, 1896 – died January 30, 1982) were American sociologists, famous for their study Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929), which became classic in American sociology. Lynds were among the first to apply the methods of cultural anthropology to the study of a modern Western city. They were the parents of the activist Staughton Lynd.
Life
Robert Lynd was born in New Albany, Indiana. He graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in 1914, and started to work as an editor of the trade magazine Publishers Weekly. He also worked for several publishing houses in New York City. His interest in theology and religion made him enroll into the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he received his Th.D. degree in 1923.
Helen Merrell was born in La Grange, Illinois, in the family of Edward Tracy Merrell, the editor of the Congregationalist Church publication The Advance, and Mabel Waite Merrell. Her parents tried to instate a strong religious sense in their children, and Helen grew up with the commitment to humanitarian work. After high school her family moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where Helen enrolled into Wellesley College. She graduated in 1919 with B.A. in philosophy.
After college, Merrell taught for a year at the Ossining School for Girls in Ossining, New York. It is during that time that she met Robert Lynd, with whom she developed intimate relationship. In 1921 she worked as a teacher at Miss Master's School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and in 1922 she received a master’s degree in history from Columbia University in New York.
In September 1922, Robert and Helen Lynd married.
Lynds started to work on their project in Muncie, Indiana in late 1923, as commissioned by the Institute of Social and Religious Research. They stayed there for 15 months, living among and studying local community. Their book, Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture was published in 1929 and has received enormous success. It went through six printings in only its first year.
Based on the success of the study, Robert Lynd was named Professor of Sociology in the Graduate School of Political Sciences in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in 1931. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia for the Middletown study. Helen Lynd joined the faculty of the newly founded Sarah Lawrence College in 1928, and would remain there until her retirement in 1964. She wrote numerous books on philosophy, education, and sociology. Robert Lynd was elected president of the Eastern Sociology Society in 1944, and was a member of the Sociological Research Association.
Lynds had two children - their son Staughton was born in 1929, and their daughter, Andrea, in 1934.
In 1944, Helen Lynd received Ph.D. in history and philosophy from Columbia University. Her dissertation was published in 1945 as England in the Eighteen-Eighties: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom.
In 1930s and 1940s Lynds became outspoken leftists, advocating the need for class solidarity. They supported the position of the Soviet Union and criticized American attacks on communists. During the McCarthy era trials Helen Lynd was questioned before a Senate investigating committee for her connections with Communist Party.
Robert Lynd retired from Columbia University in 1960. He died on November 1, 1970, in Warren, Connecticut.
Helen Lynd retired from Sarah Lawrence College in 1964, but continued to teach there until her death. She died in Warren, Ohio, on January 30, 1982.
Work
Lynds started to collaborate together in early 1920s, in John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s Committee on Social and Religious Surveys (CSRS). The organizations ultimate goal was to unite all the protestant churches in the nation, through the network of common social services. In 1923 the CSRS changed the name into the Institute for Social and Religious Research, which immediately started with the research and conducting of new studies. Lynds were selected to undertake a study of religious practices of people of one small American town. The choice eventually settled on Muncie, Indiana (studied under the pseudonym Middletown) as a typical Midwestern town.
The Middletown study started in 1923, and lasted for 15 months. The town consisted of 38,000 people, predominantly white Protestants. Lynds defined the goal of their study as to measure the changes in habits and behavior of people over the last thirty years. Although they were originally commissioned by the Institute for Social and Religious Research to strictly study religious practices, Lynds went over their assignment and included different aspects of life into their research.
Lynds collected information from different sources – direct observation, interviews, questionnaires, documentary materials, and statistics. They studied people’s habits and behavior in everyday situation, recording the time people got in and out of bed, whether they had a car and how it was used, how the laundry was done, how often someone went to church, what material was taught in school, and so on.
Lynds concluded that the Middletown has significantly changed in the light of industrialization, and that the 'consumer culture' increasingly influences people’s lives. Lynds were rather critical of America's growing preoccupation with money and consumption.
After the completion of their study, Lynds presented the results to the Institute of Social and Religious Research, but met with cold reception. The Institute refused to publish their work for it did not follow their initial agreement. In 1929 Harcourt, Brace Company finally published the work, which immediately became huge hit. The book went through six printings in only its first year.
Robert and Helen Lynd returned to Muncie in 1935 for a follow-up study, and published their second book, Middletown in Transition (1937). This work was not as popular as the first one, but it also sold in big numbers. In it Lynds continued to criticize American preoccupation with consumerism, especially in the light of the growing advertisement industry. They saw a contradiction in American society – on one side Americans being independent and capable of organizing their own lives, and on the other so powerless and passive in the face of advertising. They also criticized American workers for not exhibiting class solidarity.
Legacy
The Middletown study was one of the first sociological analyses in the United States of social and cultural change in a modern, urban community. Lynds’ book went on to become one of the most influential and most popular books of the twentieth century. In the years since, many scholars continued to study Muncie, following up on Lynds' work, making this local community perhaps the most studied in the nation. In the late 1970s, a team of sociologists led by Theodore Caplow went to Muncie to make a new study, some fifty years after the Lynds’ work. This became known as Middletown III. Then again in 1998-1999 Caplow returned to Muncie completing Middletown IV.
Publications
- Lynd, Helen M. 1945. England in the eighteen-eighties: Toward a social basis for freedom. London: Oxford University Press.
- Lynd, Helen M. 1945. Field work in college education. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Lynd, Helen M. 1958. On shame and the search for identity. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
- Lynd, Robert S. 1936. Democracy's third estate - the consumer. New York: Academy of Political Science.
- Lynd, Robert S. 1939. Knowledge for what? The place of social science in American culture. Princeton: Princeton university press.
- Lynd, Robert S. 1950. You can do it better democratically: A comment on the operation of politics and government as they affect the lives of most people. Detroit: UAW-CIO Education Dept.
- Lynd, Robert S. & Lynd, Helen. 1959 (original published in 1929). Middletown: A study in modern American culture. Harvest Books. ISBN 0156595508
- Lynd, Robert S. & Lynd, Helen. 1982 (original published in 1937). Middletown in transition: A study in cultural conflicts. Harcourt, Brace. ISBN 0156595516
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- BookRags.com. Encyclopedia of World Biography on Helen Merrell Lynd. Retrieved on May 16, 2007, <http://www.bookrags.com/Helen_Lynd>
- BookRags.com. Middletown. Retrieved on May 16, 2007, <http://www.bookrags.com/Middletown>
- Downs, Robert B. 1971. Books that changed America. Signet. ISBN 0451611039
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Robert Lynd and Helen Lynd. Retrieved on May 17, 2007, <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049522/%2520Robert-Lynd-and-Helen-Lynd>
External Links
- Center for Middletown Studies – at the Ball State University
- Middletown Studies – On Middletown project on BookRags.com
- On Middletown studies – Interview with different people who participated in various Middletown studies (PBS website)
- The Lynds Revisited – An article on Lynds’ work by Richard Jensen
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