The Middletown studies, originally begun by famed researchers Robert and Helen Lynd in the early 20th century in Muncie, Indiana, sought to create a portrait of every aspect of modern American small town life, from work to family to leisure to religion, to, in their words, “present a dynamic, functional study of the contemporary life of this specific American community in the light of trends of changing behaviour observable in it during the last thirty-five years.” Click on the link above to learn much more about this fascinating (and still ongoing) anthropological project, which has beautifully captured the gradual changes of everyday American existence over the last century.
N.B.: I learned about these studies recently — from Peter Davis’s incredible six-part Middletown documentary series from the early 1980s, something of a cinematic continuation of the project. Two of the three entries I’ve seen so far — SEVENTEEN and SECOND TIME AROUND — are among the best nonfiction films I’ve ever seen. Seek them out.
(via K as in Knife)
