14 Facts About Helen Lynd

Helen Merrell Lynd was an American sociologist, social philosopher, educator, and author.

Helen Lynd is best known for conducting the first Middletown studies of Muncie, Indiana, with her husband, Robert Staughton Lynd; as the coauthor of Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture and Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts ; and a pioneer in the use of social surveys.

Helen Lynd was the author of England in the 1880s: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom, On Shame and the Search for Identity, and essays on academic freedom.

Helen Lynd Merrell was born in La Grange, Illinois, on March 17,1896.

Helen Lynd began teaching at a New York City boarding school, but left the position after two years to begin graduate studies at Columbia University.

Helen Merrell met Robert Staughton Lynd while hiking Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

The couple had two children, a son, Staughton Helen Lynd, who became a historian and social activist, and a daughter, Andrea Merrell Nold.

Helen Merrell began her career as an educator in New York City, but after her marriage to Robert Lynd and earning a master's degree from Columbia University, she became a sociologist, author, and college professor.

Helen and Robert Lynd coauthored Middletown in Transition, a sequel to their first book on Muncie that became another sociological classic, but plans for a third Middletown book did not develop.

Helen Lynd became a lecturer at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and from 1929 to 1964, a faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Helen Lynd continued to author books, such as England in the 1880s: Toward a Social Basis for Freedom and On Shame and the Search for Identity, in addition to writing articles on academic freedom.

The model of shame that Helen Lynd advocated in her book, On Shame and the Search for Identity, is loosely Marxian, insisting upon "the importance of historical context and of transcultural analysis within single social formations".

Helen Lynd died on January 30,1982, in Warren, Ohio, at the age of eighty-five.

Helen and Robert Lynd coauthored two books that became classics of American sociology: Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture and Middletown in Transition.