Oral history interview with David Riesman, 1968.

Biographical Note

Sociologist and Lawyer, University of Chicago.

Scope and Contents

Initial Carnegie Corporation-funded work on national policy study at Yale University; funding the publication of study findings, 1947-1949; publication of THE LONELY CROWD: A STUDY OF THE CHANGING AMERICAN CHARACTER, 1950; FACES IN THE CROWD: INDIVIDUAL STUDIES IN CHARACTER AND POLITICS, 1952; community studies in Kansas City; INDIVIDUALISM RECONSIDERED, 1953; TIME Magazine cover, 1954; Bureau of Applied Research, 1955; Carnegie grant for study on higher education; CONSTRAINT AND VARIETY IN AMERICAN EDUCATION, 1956; work for Fund for the Republic. Thoughts on being a Carnegie grant recipient; impact of grants on his work; the grant-seeking process; the Social Science Research Council (SSRC); CARNEGIE QUARTERLY; geographical distribution of grants; Henry S. Reuss’ committee on research and development; funding of politically divisive research; controversy surrounding Harvard University’s Russian Research Center; McCarthyist investigation of researchers; Carnegie’s task force on the role of states. Impressions of John W. Gardner, Everett C. Hughes, Harold D. Lasswell, Eugene V. Rostow.

Subjects

• Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Columbia University. Bureau of Applied Social Research.
• Education--Research.
• Fund for the Republic.
• Grossner, Isabel S., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Riesman, David, 1909-2002--Interviews.
• Sociologists--Interviews.
• Sociology--Research.

Access Conditions

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