davidriesman

David Riesman



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David Riesman was a sociologist in the 1950s. He noticed that Americans had always valued individuality. But in the 1950s, people were now preferring conformity. He wrote a book called __Tootle the Engine__, a book where a train engine named Tootle saw it was more fun to play off the tracks than to stay on them, thus opposing conformity. But Tootle was later convinced by his fellow engines that he should "Always stay on the track no matter what" (America Pathways to the Present, Ch 20, sec. 2, pg 675). He believed that his story was a powerful parable. In 1950, Riesman also wrote __The Lonely Crowd__, a sociological study of meodern conformity.