La folla solitaria

I came across Reisman’s Lonely Crowd while searching for a more “meaningful” life after leaving the computer industry. I think I stumbled on the “pop sociology” books of Edward Hall first (undoubtedly still worth reading). Then I dug deeper and wider, eventually hitting the important but oft-neglect Leggi tutto

truly describes our generations character. the fact that we're all on a website with our 'other-directed' receptors attune to see what books we should read next, pretty much proves the substance of this book - although it was written more to describe the new upper middle class mindset of the 1950s.

Originally published in 1950, this fascinating sociological analysis was one of the assigned readings for a college course I once took on the intellectual history of twentieth-century America, and has - despite its flaws - been very influential in shaping my own ideas about conformity and independen Leggi tutto

When this book was published (in 1950, in paperback three years later, and a condensed version in 1961), it was not only widely admired by intellectuals but also a best-seller. Today, however, in the humble opinion of one reader who was blown away by it in 1954, it seems deplorably banal, full of me Leggi tutto

Riesman, who wrote in 1950, anchors US character traits in a “S” demographic and economic curve. At the bottom of the “S,” lies the tradition-bound character that reflects a long-term, stabilized and largely static economic era. Individuals take on the traits of their forefathers. The culture is pro Leggi tutto

I admire Riesman trying to assay the "American Character" with three pigeonholes of inner-, outer- and tradition-directed. I find the meat here beyond the triptych taxonomy of character to the plumbing of the post-Puritan American soul: ...we have also inherited obstacles to leisure from the puritan Leggi tutto