A History of Sociological Research Methods in America, 1920-1960

Examining the general history of US sociological research methods, this text aims to provide systematic archival, documentary and interview data which question many conventional views, and thereby raise wider issues of method in the history of ideas. Special attention is paid to commonly neglected themes: case-study method and the Lundberg circle, for example. Jennifer Platt discusses the production of methodological writing, showing that neither it nor theoretical work adequately describe research practice. She also investigates the dominance of scientism, and the impact of research funding. The book evaluates the significance of schools of thought and suggests that processes of social construction and memory lead to uneven emphases in the folk history of the discipline. This study attempts to develop understanding both of the history of social thought, and the settings in which social research is produced.