W.

Lloyd Warner 1898-1970

Author(s): Burleigh B. Gardner
Source: The American Sociologist, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Nov., 1970), pp. 384-385
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27701692
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 in the background for several years while Professor in research, and when he died he was
Shevky actively engaged
worked at Stanford University in the field of experimental working on the second volume of a study of our emerging
medicine. He was the Ph.D.
awarded in this field by Stan society.
ford University in 1922.
Subsequently, his earlier interest in Warner was a native Californian, born in Redlands in
the theory and practice of area studies was renewed, and 1898, and his love of the mountains and deserts of southern
he became director of the Tewa Basin study in New Mexico. California was strong. His favorite winter retreat in recent
From 1935 to 1941 he was chief of the Division of Economic years was Borrego Springs where he could bask in the
Surveys for the
Southwest Region, U.S. Soil Conservation sunshine and desert air and work on his research and writ
Service, and for part of that time he was a member of the ing.
Interdepartmental Rio Grande Committee. In 1940 Professor In World War I he served as a in the infantry,
private
Shevky served as technical advisor to the official American and afterwards he worked in New York in the music pub
delegation at the First Inter-American Conference on Indian business. He was
lishing fascinated by the symbolic mean
Life, Patzcuaro, Mexico. In 1945 he was the only non ings of popular and later he did re
music, many years
university member of the Pacific Coast Committee on Com search on them. the music he
Leaving publishing business,
munity Studies of the Social Science Research Council. soon returned to college, and in 1925 he his
completed
From 1944 to 1949 Professor served as sociologist B.A. in at then went on to
Shevky anthropology Berkeley and
at the Haynes Foundation where his work on the social work at Harvard.
graduate In 1926 under a Rockefeller
areas of Los Angeles was His classic Foundation
prepared. formulation fellowship he began his study of the Murngin
of social area first published in The Social in
analysis, Areas society northern Australia. There he became a close
of Los Angeles, coauthored with Marilyn Williams (1949) friend of Radcliffe-Brown whose studies
early provided
has had a profound effect on scholarship in the field for his work. With
of guidance aid from the Australian National
urban That work, which was Research
sociology. extended and refined Council, he lived alone in the bush with the
in subsequent has most
publications, recently been acknowl Murngin tribe, learning their life and customs at first hand.
edged in a detailed
study of the Dimensions of Urban Social He completed his study in 1929, and his research findings
Structure (1969), an analysis of Melbourne, Australia, by
were published in his book A Black Civilization: A Social
F. Lancaster Jones. As the theory and
methodology of Pro Study of an Australian Tribe (1937).
fessor Shevky's work has been to replication In 1929 Warner
subjected in returned to another type of civilization,
diverse cultural settings the world, the seminal Harvard
throughout University, to study and teach. There he developed
significance of his creative has become increas a grand to apply
scholarship design the field methods and concepts of
ingly apparent. social to the study of modern
anthropology communities.
With his to the
appointment faculty at U.C.L.A. in 1950, With the help of Elton Mayo he soon had underway the
Professor Shevky embarked upon the difficult task of assist first of these?a of Newburyport,
study Massachusetts?
ing in the organization and development of the university's which has become well known as the "Yankee
City study."
Middle Eastern Area Studies He was at With from the Committee
Program. recognized support of Industrial of
Physiology
that time as the preeminent in the Western Harvard
sociologist Hemis University Warner assembled a team?mostly
phere who was capable of combining a profound graduate students in anthropology?to
native do the field work for
knowledge of the Middle East with the contemporary tech this study. It was then I first knew Lloyd Warner. As a
niques and research of American
tactics graduate student I considered
sociology. While this research the epitome of
at U.C.L.A. he initiated and
taught an excellent and unusual what Harvard should offer. Working constantly with Warner
series of courses on the Middle East under the aegis of the in the field, his conferences
attending and seminars, and
Department of and Sociology. the data held
Anthropology analyzing tremendous intellectual challenge
Professor Shevky was active in the affairs of the univer and excitement.
sity until the year of his death. His most recent research It was this research team that had the best to
was part of a opportunity
major study of the Mexican-American see Warner's mind at work. The team was intro
popula wide-ranging
tion of the carried out under duced to the early
Southwest, the direction of sociologists and social anthropologists
Professor Leo Grebler. such as Simmel, Durkheim, Malinowski, and Radcliffe
Professor Shevky's career the best in the di Brown. Warner's enthusiasm for seeing
exemplifies the relationships
verse elements of the academic tradition. and of all
He devoted him meanings forms of behavior was ap
constantly
self with equal to the practical parent. He would
vigor resolution of some of plunge enthusiastically into an analysis
the most pressing of the human of the morning
problems condition and to paper; he reveled in the pageantry and
the advancement of our ceremonials of Memorial
conceptual understanding of the Day; and he enthusiastically sought
intricacies of that condition. to understand
But, most of all, he will be the forces at work in politics. All this was not
remembered for his and for his gentle for its own sake
sagacity and dis knowledge (he was not one to merely collect
cerning manner in the classroom and in the field. artifacts or record the customs) ; he had to understand how
Peter A. Orleans all fit together as a coherent whole.

University of California During this period Warner and his work to be

began
Los Angeles widely known. The "Yankee City study" soon began to reveal
the social class structure of American and this
society,
attracted academic
W. LLOYD WARNER widespread attention. Although he wrote
and lectured extensively, it was his research on modern
1898-1970 culture which drew attention and people to him. Before the
field work in Newburyport was he had
completed, begun
Professor W. Lloyd Warner, and sociologist, to pursue his vision
anthropolgist of comparable studies elsewhere. In
died May 23, 1970, at the age of seventy-one. He was a Ireland under the sponsorship of De Valera he helped plan
teacher, writer, and researcher, but research was his a total
life, anthropological study and spent two summers there
starting with his field work with Australian in a
aborigines directing social anthropological study. Assisting were
1926. Since then there was never a period when he was not Solon Kimball and Conrad The work was
Arensberg. pub
384
The American Sociologist

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lished as Family and Community in Ireland (Arensberg and Deeply interested in the economic and business structure

Kimball, Harvard University Press, 1940, with preface by as part of our social
system, Warner at the practical level
Warner). sought to apply the social sciences to solving business prob
In 1933 Warner initiated a study of an old southern com lems and in 1946 with the writer founded Social Research,
munity. Two of his Yankee City team, Allison Davis and I, Inc. for this purpose. Until 1969 he guided the work on
carried out the study in Natchez, Mississippi, and it was re problems ranging from symbolic analysis of mass media to

ported in Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of consumer behavior and motivation in any field. His interest
a Southern Community and Gardner, University of in American business and government as powerful forces in
(Davis
introduction our led him to extensive out of which came
Chicago Press, 1941, with by Warner). society research,
In 1935 Warner moved to the University of Chicago as six books. As mentioned earlier, at the time of his death he
of anthropology and There he worked was working on the second volume of Emergent American
professor sociology.
with new teams of graduate students and faculty on a wide Society.
of projects. He stressed the interdisciplinary In 1959 he moved to Michigan State University as uni
variety always
nature of the social and behavioral sciences and encouraged versity professor of social research. There he was closely
the breaking down of the departmental walls between them. associated with the School of Business, and a new generation
In 1942 with Robert J. Havighurst and this writer he estab of students, many from business as well as the social
lished the Committee on Human Relations in as sciences, were drawn into his classes and research. While
Industry
an research committee. Later Warner, there he completed and published work on business and
interdepartmental
and others the Committee on Human government executives and his studies of the emergent so
Havighurst, organized
Development to provide interdisciplinary training and to ciety.
award degrees in human development. Amazingly productive in both research and publication,
The work of Warner attracted considerable interest in Warner was author or coauthor of twenty-five books and in

England, and in the early 1950s he was invited to give the numerable articles. In research, he was a believer in team
Monroe Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. work?he always gathered a team together and brought in
These were of Edinburgh Press experts and advisors from any relevant field. He was
published by the University always
with colleagues on their projects and bringing them
in 1952 under the title Structure of American Life. working
Warner's research interests all aspects of our in on his own projects. As a result, ideas emerging from the
spanned
and his major researches touched upon and sought work became widespread even before publication. He also
society,
to integrate almost from caste and class organiza constantly helped others, especially his students, to obtain
everything
to education, and the opportunities for their own work. Many a project was
tion religious beliefs, big business,
of the executive. In order the siz?to deal with started with his aid even though his name does not appear as
personality
and of modern societies he saw the need to go author of the publications.
complexity
the traditional observations and interviews of the Those of us who worked with Professor Warner found him
beyond
field anthropologist and use quantitative data and and exciting. He enjoyed life, whether an intel
sophisti stimulating
cated statistical methods. with the Yankee City lectual discussion, a lively party, or a bit of social observa
Starting
studies 5 vols., 1941 to 1959) and tion in a local tavern. He was warm and generous with his
(Yale University Press,
The American colleagues and students and willing to share in both the
continuing through Emergent (ed. Society
et al., Yale vol. 1, 1967) he has work and the glory.
by Warner Press, University
to the analysis of quanti Burleigh B. Gardner
applied anthropological concepts
tative data to give a total view of society and its functioning. Social Research, Inc.

November 1970 385

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