Small Town in Mass Society: Class, Power, and Religion in a Rural Community

by Arthur J. Vidich, Joseph Bensman

First published in 1958, Small Town in Mass Society set community studies on a new course by placing the small town within the framework of large-scale, bureaucratic mass society. Drawing attention to the dynamics of class and ethnicity in relation to economics and politics, this landmark work was among the first to document the consequences of centralized administration on life in American communities.
 
Through a close study of "Springdale, New York," Arthur J. Vidich and Joseph Bensman depict the small town as continuously and increasingly drawn into the central institutions and processes of the total society. Vidich and Bensman based their conclusions on extensive interviews with and close observation of the inhabitants of one community. The original publication of the book caused a sharp response among the town's citizens who felt their trust had been violated and their town misrepresented.
 
The present volume includes the editorials and correspondence evoked by that controversy, the authors' articles describing their methodology, a new foreword by Michael W. Hughey, and a new afterword in which Arthur J. Vidich recounts the creation and history of the book.
 

Genres: Sociology

560 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1957

Reviews

[Aaron Crofut · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up in Springdale, better known to us as Candor. Pretty ballsy to declare a way of life "defeated." A great deal had changed between the publication of this book and my birth and even more so since then, but the small town mentality still exists. Even the birth of the Internet, an event unforeseen by the authors, could not change that. My college experience with friends from cities who visited Candor (and my visits to the cities) convince me that cultural differences do exist that "mass society" is incapable of destroying.

Basically, just because a small town cannot control every externality does not mean the people of that town are powerless to create their own world. Yes, the outside world does impact us, but the authors wildly overstated their case by describing our worldview as destroyed and powerless.

That said, it is an interesting historical account of my hometown prior to the birth of my parents.

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contained some great insights on its problem, but the essays and correspondence in the last few chapters of the revised edition were so egregious I really didn’t know what to do with myself when I finished it.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the 1958 edition of this volume. It was assigned to me as a text when I was an undergraduate student at Bradley University. It is a case study of a small community in Western New York. The preface notes that (Page x): ". . .this study is an attempt to explore the foundations of social life in a community which lacks the power to control the institutions that regulate and determine its existence." The subtitle notes that this also considers class, powewr, and religion in a small, rural community.

A nice case study in its day, although the analysis does seem to me to be somewhat timebound.

[Mel]

I don't think the writers of this book really managed to stick to any kind of scientific methodology, but their observations of the tensions in small town American in the 1950s are interesting to read, especially from the modern vantage point.