Small Town in Mass Society - Revised Edition

Art and Joseph Bensman teamed up to write this classic study of American society in the Post World War II era. It represents one of the most important community studies in American history in so far as it reveals that rapid transition Americans were making from an agricultural rural way of life to one where federal and state governments have become more powerful than any of the founding fathers of this nation could ever have envisioned. As a portrait of a rural upstate New York town in the early 1950s it reveals the political processes and conflicts of power that have emerged as "mass society" has penetrated into the very furtherst reaches of rural America. The authors clearly reveal that the distinction between and urban and rural ways of life is a fiction of the past.

This book made Vidich and Bensman famous in the world of sociology and political science. It also made them infamous characters in the town of Candor, New York due to the fact that none of the key individuals in Candor (who are thinly disguided in this book) ever expected such publicity about their town or their lives.

This revised edition of the book provides an excellent critique of the furor and controversy after its publication. Its assessment of the ethical issues of conducting sociological research is one of the finest examples of self assessment in the sociological literature.

The Making of Small Town in Mass Society - A Rare Look at the Vidich/Bensman Collaboration

Art Vidich Circa 1955

In November of 2016, I had the opportunity to visit the New School archives in New York City and obtain copies of some priceless letters that chronicle the Vidich/Bensman collaboration on what would become the classic study, Small Town in Mass Society.  The four page letter included in this blog post captures Art Vidich's frustrations with working within the bureaucratic confines of the Cornell University sponsored study of Candor New York - a town that was given the pseudonym "Springdale" by the Cornell project team.  Vidich expresses his frustration with the limitations placed on his research. 

For those familiar with Vidich's distaste for bureaucratically managed research, this letter reveals his naivete concerning the potential strictures that might be imposed by government funding. 

Fortunately, his colleague Joe Bensman disabused Art Vidich of his overly critical analysis of the Cornell study team and kept him focused on the task at hand rather than his "shocking" analysis of the Cornell Study team for which he worked when this letter was written. 

Written while Art was still working for Cornell, the letter appears to be prophetic. It suggests that a grant to conduct research in Puerto Rico could be of interest to Joe Bensman for his thesis. While that never materialized, it would only be a matter of months before Art Vidich would end his work at Cornell and accept a position at the University of Puerto Rico starting in the fall of 1954.  

While Art's basic research for Small Town in Mass Society was completed while working for Cornell University, it was in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico that he completed the drafts of the book.  Joe and Art carried on an active correspondence trading chapters of the book through the U.S. Mail and occasionally spending extended periods of time together to hammer out the final chapters.

While their correspondence was extensive, only a handful of letters - including this one - have survived to document their collaboration on this classic study of a rural farm community in upstate New York.