The American sociologist Robert Staughton Lynd (1892-1970) greatly influenced American sociology through his "Middletown" studies.

Robert S. Lynd was born in Indiana. He and his wife, Helen Merrell Lynd, wrote a sensitive account of the influence of his background in Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts. "Although reared during his first 18 years in a city of 18,000 population in the same state as Middletown, the investigator came to Middletown in 1924 after fourteen years spent in the East. Accordingly, he may have had an outlook somewhat different from the modal outlook of Middletown, even though the culture of the East North Central and Middle Atlantic States are fundamentally overwhelmingly alike. The fact that he came from ten years of residence in New York City to a city of 36,000 in 1924 may have emphasized latent differences. The fact that, despite several years of business experience, he came as an `academic'...