![]() ![]() "There is in Middletown's press an undertone of disparagement of New York and other big cities," the Lynds note in their second book. The question arises: Why did Muncie irritate these experienced researchers so? What was there about Middletown that seemed to annoy outsiders, urban easterners in particular? The irony is as heavy and dated as a Sinclair Lewis novel. 'We're militaristic rather than pacifist out here-though of course we don't want wars.' "Īnd so on. "That pacifism is disreputable and un-American. 'If a person knows too much or is too critical it makes him a kill-joy or a snob not able to enjoy the things most people enjoy.' " "That it is better to be appreciative than discriminating. "That leisure is something you spend with people and a person is 'queer' who enjoys solitary leisure." "That 'red-blooded' physical sports are more normal recreations for a man than art, music and literature." "That most women cannot be expected to understand public problems as well as men." "That men are more practical and efficient than women." 'Where'd all our jobs be if it wasn't for them?' " "That the captains of industry are social benefactors because they create employment. "That the rich are, by and large, more intelligent and industrious than the poor. ![]() "That ordinarily any man willing to work can get a job." "That 'American ways' are better than 'foreign ways.' " The restlessness of some of the wives is regarded by some men as due to 'their thinking too much.' "Ī bitter litany of the Lynds' conclusions about "the Middletown spirit" follows, along these lines: "As in so many other phases of Middletown's life, the preoccupation of the males with the practical affairs of earning a living makes them more or less automatic local boosters and more gray and neutral than the women in matters that do not concern their jobs. 'Practically all of us realize that we are common men, and we are prone to distrust and hate those whom we regard as uncommon.' " "Middletown believes: in being honest in being kind in being friendly, a 'good neighbor' and a 'good fellow' in being loyal, and a 'booster, not a knocker' in being successful in being an average man. The 15-page list of conclusions in their 1935 sequel, "Middletown in Transition," begins blandly enough but soon sours. The two sociologists-whose groundbreaking 550-page statistical survey, "Middletown," made them famous and controversial-always insisted they liked Middletown and its people. Middletown, as almost everyone knows, is Muncie, Ind., a town of 36,000 souls in 1925 when the Lynds first analyzed it and found there wasn't even a paved road to the nearest city, 60 miles away. I still don't know enough about Middletown. From the TV show I learned something about television as a medium for information. From the books I learned quite a bit about the authors' feelings. I reread them for the first time since college, the better to deal with the new series on PBS. I had forgotten how hostile Robert and Helen Lynd's books on Middletown were. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |