David Riesman
David Riesman
David Riesmanwas a sociologist, educator and best-selling commentator on American society...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth22 September 1909
CountryUnited States of America
loss america enthusiasm
A decline of exuberance is just barely noticeable in America, making itself felt particularly among the most highly educated and the well-to-do in a loss of appetite for work and perhaps even for leisure.
generations ethics tendencies
It is not new for the older generation to bewail the indolence of the young, and there is a tendency for the latter to maintain much of the older ethic screened by a new semantics and an altered ideology.
attitude people childhood
In preindustrial cultures leisure is scarcely a burden or a "problem" because it is built into the ritual and ground plan of life for which people are conditioned in childhood; often they possess a relatively timeless attitude toward events.
hard-work weekend night
There is evidence that young men in the big law firms, although they still work harder than most of their clients, do not glory in putting in night work and weekend hours as they once did.
hero class community
There has been a change in heroes within the working-class community
taken democracies-have play
A spurious democracy has influenced both our research methods (I am sometimes tempted to define "validity" as part of the context of an experiment demanding so little in the way of esoteric gift that any number can play at it, provided they have taken a certain number of courses) and our research subjects (it would be deemed snobbish to investigate only the best people).
education mass-culture cities
Our society offers little in the way of reeducation for those who have been torn away from their traditional culture and suddenly exposed to all the blandishments of mass culture-even the churches which follow the hillbillies to the city often make use of the same "hard sell" that the advertisers and politicians do.
media people empathy
The media, far from being a conspiracy to dull the political sense of the people, could be viewed as a conspiracy to disguise the extent of political indifference.
children cities doctors
The children themselves, before they get access to a car, are captives of their suburb, save for those families where the housewives surrender continuity in their own lives to chauffeur their children to lessons, doctors, and other services that could be reached via public transport in the city.
mean people manners
Etiquette can be at the same time a means of approaching people and of staying clear of them.
roles remains ifs
If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women.
zest acquisition leisure
It is among the less privileged groups relatively new to leisure and consumption that the zest for possessions retains something of its pristine energy.
men frustrated jam
Drivers in a traffic jam, frustrated by each others presence, are not the most amiable of men.
medicine enjoy-life want
If you want to get out of medicine the fullest enjoyment, be students all your lives.