David Riesman

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David Riesman (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 22, 1909; died in Binghamton, New York, May 10, 2002), was a United States sociologist, attorney, and educator.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review, Riesman clerked for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis from 1935-1936.

[edit] The Lonely Crowd

Riesman's 1950 book, The Lonely Crowd, deals with modern sociology. In it Riesman wrote of the 'inner-directed' and 'other-directed' personalities. Riesman argues that the character of post WWII American society impels individuals to "other-directedness", the premier example being modern suburbia, where individuals seek their neighbors approval and fear being outcast from their community. This lifestyle has a coercive effect, which compels people to abandon "inner-direction" of their lives, and induces them to take on the goals, ideology, likes and dislikes of their community. Ironically, this creates a tightly grouped crowd of people that is yet incapable of truly fulfilling each other's desire for companionship. The book is considered a landmark study of American character.^[1]

[edit] American Higher Education

Riesman was also a noted commentator on American Higher Education, publishing his seminal treatment The Academic Revolution with Christopher Jencks, in addition to many smaller works and articles. In The Academic Revolution Riesman synopsizes his position by claiming that "if this book has any single message it is that the academic profession increasingly determines the character of undergraduate education in America." Through a laborious and historically thorough treatment of landmark changes in 20th century American higher education, Riesman repeatedly brings to light the role of the "logic of the research university", which focuses upon strict disciplinary research. This internal logic both sets the goals of the research university and produces its future professors, which Riesman notes has the effect of isolating any patterns of resistance, and dashing their chances of success.

In 1967 he was quoted as stating "If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women."