Early in his memoirs Paul Scott Mowrer commented: "There is German in me, and Dutch, and Scotch, and Welsh, and for aught I know, much else. I put this down, not because I think it important, but because I believe it typical." Mowrer reflected the strength of a growing turn-of-the-century middle class in America. Comprised of hardy farmers and mercantile folk, they were churchgoers who sometimes took to counting the numbers of Revolutionary War stalwarts in their family trees. The Mowrers also had hired help, albeit part-time, a mark of their solvency.

Paul Scott Mowrer was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on 14 July 1887 to Rufus Mowrer, a merchant, and Nell Scott Mowrer. On 8 March 1892 his younger brother, Edgar, came along, and, despite the difference in age, the two became lifelong friends. Paul remembered the feeling between them: "When I would remonstrate with him, his tear-filled eyes would take on...