Hans Zeisel

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Hans Zeisel (Kadaň, Bohemia, 1905 - Chicago, 1992) was a public opinion analyst, a sociologist, a statistician, a historian of Austrian socialism, a Shakespearan scholar, and a law professor. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic but was brought as an infant to Vienna. He and Paul Lazarsfeld were leaders of the young Socialists. Hans earned a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1927 and practiced law as well as survey research in Vienna until 3 months after the 1938 Anschluss, which led to his forced emigration. In New York, he became a senior executive and researcher in media and market research, first at McCann-Erickson and then at the Tea Council. With Marie Jahoda, they wrote a now-classical study of the social impact of unemployment on a small community: Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal (1932; English eds. 1971). In addition to directing the imaginative field-work, Hans took photographs and wrote an appendix on community studies. His research experience led ultimatively to his distinctive and influential text on survey analysis, Say it with Figures (1947).

In 1953, a new career began when Hans joined the law faculty at the University of Chicago. Here, in collaboration with Harry Kalven, Jr., he embarked upon a Ford Foundation-funded study of the American jury system. This collaboration led to two important empirical studies of the law: Delay in the Court (1959) and The American Jury (1966). The Limits of Law Enforcement (1983) demonstrates how the American judicial system does not deter criminals. Hans was a pioneer in using statistical evidence and survey data on court, particularly in trademark-infringement cases. He believed fervently in abolishing the death penalty, in maintaining the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit, and in the ultimate redemption of the Chicago Cubs. (A true understanding of baseball generally and of baseball statistics in particular is only one indicator of the thorough Americanization of this most passionate Viennese.) Unlike many people with passionate beliefs, Hans generally had data that he could advance in their support. He was opposed to capital punishment in part because he could demonstrate that it discriminated against minorities. Through content analysis of its hearings, he demonstrated that the House Un-American Activities Committee violated the Constitutional rights of witnesses - data that helped bring about its demise. He acted upon his moral convictions by means of a succession of national commission memberships and meticulous research publications.

Zeisel's wife was the industrial designer and ceramicist Eva Zeisel (born in Hungary in 1906), renowned for her "Town and Country" line of dishes, exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Hans played tennis and swam almost until his death.

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