Back to Middletown Three Generations of Sociological Reflections

This work examines Robert and Helen Merrell Lynd's two inter-war studies of Muncie, Indiana, and the enormous secondary literature which they spawned. It differs from other investigations by examining the complete Middletown saga through the distinctive lens of an outsider, that of an Italian sociologist, tracing the character and evolution of middle America from the Lynds time to the present. The author's discovery of previously unknown data, documents and correspondence sheds new light on the formation and elaboration of the Lynds project. She addresses major issues of sociology and social anthropology and takes up questions that reflect the contemporary contradictions and dissonances in the American social fabric. This book shows that the continuing narrative of Middletown encapsulates the pain of social and economic alienation, political war, religious messianism, and personal demoralization.