Хелен Линд: Социолог и автор «Миддлтауна»

the American sociologist
American sociologist and social philosopher

Helen Merrell Lynd (March 17, 1896 – January 30, 1982) was an American sociologist, social philosopher, educator, and author. She is best known for conducting the first Middletown studies of Muncie, Indiana, with her husband, Robert Staughton Lynd; as the coauthor of Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929) and Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts (1937); and a pioneer in the use of social surveys. She was also the author of England in the 1880s: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom (1945), On Shame and the Search for Identity (1958), and essays on academic freedom. In addition to writing and research, Lynd was a lecturer at Vassar College, and a professor at Sarah Lawrence College from 1929 to 1964.

Helen Merrell was born in La Grange, Illinois, on March 17, 1896. Merrill studied philosophy at Wellesley College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1919. She began teaching at a New York City boarding school, but left the position after two years to begin graduate studies at Columbia University. Merrell earned a master's degree from Columbia University in the History of Ideas in 1922 and a Ph. D. degree in history and philosophy from Columbia in 1944.

Helen Merrell met Robert Staughton Lynd while hiking Mount Washington in New Hampshire. They married in 1921. Robert Lynd died on November 1, 1970.

Helen Merrell began her career as an educator in New York City, but after her marriage to Robert Lynd and earning a master's degree from Columbia University, she became a sociologist, author, and college professor.

In 1924, Helen and Robert Lynd moved to Muncie, Indiana, to begin an eighteen month study of daily life in this small, Midwestern community. John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded the research as part of the Institute for Social and Religious Research's Small City Study. The Lynds and their three person staff primarily observed the social lives of the city's inhabitants. The study compared life in Muncie in 1890 to Muncie in 1924, with the goal of measuring the impact of the Industrial Revolution on American life. The Lynds provided details of their observations and analysis of their findings in Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929), which they coauthored. It was the first sociological study of an American community and became a classic work in the field. The book's success also launched the Lynds' academic careers. Helen and Robert Lynd coauthored Middletown in Transition (1937), a sequel to their first book on Muncie that became another sociological classic, but plans for a third Middletown book did not develop. Instead, the Lynds turned to other scholarly interests.

Helen Lynd became a lecturer at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and from 1929 to 1964, a faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She also continued to author books, such as England in the 1880s: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom (1945) and On Shame and the Search for Identity (1958), in addition to writing articles on academic freedom. During the era of McCarthyism in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Helen and Robert Lynd were the subjects of federal investigations for alleged involvement in the Communist party. Helen Lynd testified before the U. S. Congress in 1953. Helen and Robert Lynd coauthored two books that became classics of American sociology: Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture (1929) and Middletown in Transition (1937). Robert B. Downs included Middletown as one of the twenty five he listed in Books That Changed America (1970).