by Theodore Caplow, Howard M. Bahr, and Bruce A. Chadwick
with Dwight W. Hoover, Laurence A. Martin, Joseph B. Tamney, and Margaret Holmes Williamson

In 1924 Robert and Helen Lynd went to Middletown (Muncie, Indiana) to study American institutions and values. The results of their work are the classic studies Middletown (1929) and Middletown in Transition (1937). In the late 1970s a team of social scientists returned to Middletown to gauge the changes that have taken place in the fifty years since the Lynds' first visit. The Middletown III Project, by replicating the earlier work, in some cases by using the same questions, provides an unprecedented portrait of a small American town as it adapts to changing times. Its first report, Middletown Families, was published by Minnesota in 1982.

This book explores the role of religion in the life of Middletown. Using the Lynds' magnificent cache of empirical data as a base, social scientists on the Middletown III Project attempted to gauge how religious beliefs and practices have changed. For the most part, their findings show that the current perception of a trend toward a more secular society is not true. In Middletown, religion seems to be more important than ever.

All Faithful People also covers the history of Middletown's churches, the differences between the town's Protestants and Catholics, religious participation among young people, and the role in Middletown life of private devotions and public rituals. In conclusion, the authors of All Faithful People evaluate Middletown as a representative community. They attempt to explain the myth of the death of organized religion, and briefly compare religion in America to religion in other Western Countries.

More books by Theodore Caplow

The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Gude to Trends in America, 1900-2000
Sociologie Militaire
The Academic Market Place
Peace Games
Perverse Incentives - The Neglect of Social Technology in the Public Sector
Elementary Sociology
Recent Social Trends in the United States 1960-1990
Leviathan Transformed - Seven National States in the New Century
The Sociology of Work
The Urban Ambience
Principles of Organization
Two Against One: Coalitions in Triad
Old Men Drunk and Sober
Toward Social Hope
Middletown Families: Fifty Years of Change & Continuity
Managing an Organization
American Social Trends
Systems of War & Peace

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