The book Middletown was an in-depth study of social change and continuity in American life. The authors, Robert and Helen Lynd, and their team of researchers used their questioning and analysis of the people of Muncie, Indiana (the basis for the fictional “Middletown”) to describe how American communities had transformed between 1890 and 1925, and what further changes might be expected in the future. As the size of the book demonstrates, these changes aren’t easily summarized, and it is broken down into several categories. Rather than trying to deal with the entire book, then, I want you to focus on a single category, one of the following:
-women and marriage
-the working class
-the “business class”
-child-raising
-leisure time
-religion
-community activity
For the group/activity you select, describe what seem to be the essential changes it experienced between 1890 and 1925. What changed? What was responsible for these changes?