The Lonely Crowd

WARNING

You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com

A Study of the Changing American Character
Abridged and Revised Edition

David Riesman with Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney; With an Introduction by Richard Sennett

View Inside Format: Paper
Price: $20.00
YUP
Our shopping cart only supports Mozilla Firefox. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase.

The Lonely Crowd . . . remains not only the best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history, but arguably one that has had the widest influence on the nation at large.”—Orlando Patterson, New York Times
 
Considered by many to be one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, The Lonely Crowd opened exciting new dimensions in our understanding of the problems confronting the individual in twentieth-century America. Richard Sennett’s new introduction illuminates the ways in which Riesman’s analysis of a middle class obsessed with how others lived still resonates in the age of social media.
 
“Indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand American society. After half a century, this book has lost none of its capacity to make sense of how we live.”—Todd Gitlin

“One of the most important books of the twentieth century.”—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker
 
“Brilliant and original.”—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
 
The Lonely Crowd remains at least as instructive now as it was in 1950, all the more so as the reality it perceived closes in on us.”—Jonathan Yardley, New Republic

David Riesman (1909–2002) was Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University. Nathan Glazer (1923–2019) was professor of education and sociology at Harvard University. Reuel Denney (1913–1995) was professor of English and American studies at the University of Hawaii. Richard Sennett is a professor of sociology at both New York University and the London School of Economics.

"[P]ublished more than half a century ago . . . [Riesman's book] remains . . . the best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history."—Orlando Patterson, New York Times

"The Lonely Crowd .. . was published more than half a century ago. It remains not only the best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history, but arguably one that has had the widest influence on the nation at large. The work . . . inevitably raises questions about the claims and limitations of academic sociology today."—Orlando Patterson, New York Times

"As accessible as it is acute, The Lonely Crowd isindispensable reading for anyone who wishes to understand American society. After half a century, this book has lost none of its capacity to make sense of how we live."—Todd Gitlin

"One of the most penetrating and comprehensive views of the twentieth-century urban American you're likely to find."—Commonweal (on the earlier editions)

"Brilliant and original."—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (on the earlier editions)

"The Lonely Crowd remains at least as instructive now as it was in 1950, all the more so as the reality it perceived closes in on us. Reich's disciples would find, if they could conceive of trusting a book that is all of 22 years old. that it speaks to them with at least as much 'relevance' as do their current gurus."—Jonathan Yardley, New Republic (on the earlier edition)

"A stimulating and provocative book. . . . It is impossible to do justice in a review to the breadth and richness of the material."—Margaret Mead (on the the earlier edition)

"Riesman has a spaciousness of outlook which brings great promise to American social theory. . . . His work is strewn with insights which make every page crackle as you read it."—Max Lerner

"A brilliant and original book."—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Reporter (on the earlier edition)

"A book for anyone who believes that the economic, political, and psychological problems of our time demand social discovery and invention and who is interested in joining with a vigorous and provocative mind in the discovery."—Helen Lynd, New York Post (on the earlier edition)

"The intellectual freshness The Lonely Crowd provides will give the fortunate reader an impressive emotional experience. This is a book to haunt your senses."—Joseph M. Goldsen, Public Opinion Quarterly (on the earlier edition)

"David Reisman's is the rare book which will be read with pleasure and profit even by those who reject its central conclusions. . . . A challenging explanation of the American character."—Oscar Handlin, Saturday Review of Literature (on the earlier edition)

“One of the most important books of the twentieth century.”—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker
ISBN: 9780300246735
Publication Date: March 17, 2020
376 pages, 5 x 7 3/4
Nineteenth-Century Cities

Essays in the New Urban History

Edited by Stephan Thernstrom and Richard Sennett

View details
Together

The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation

Richard Sennett

View details
The Craftsman

Richard Sennett

View details
Veritas Paperbacks
The Madwoman in the Attic

The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

Sandra M.

...
View details
Seeing Like a State

How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

James C. Scott

View details
On Democracy

Robert A.

...
View details
The Rise and Decline of Nations

Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities

Mancur Olson; With an Introduction by Edward L. Glaeser

View details
An Essay on Man

An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture

Ernst Cassirer; With an Introduction by Peter E. Gordon

View details