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Title: Alex Inkeles papers
Date (inclusive): 1941-2003
Collection Number: 85005
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
549 manuscript boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 6 card file boxes, 2 cubic foot boxes, 32 linear feet of volumes, and 13 digital files
(264.6 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, notes, memoranda, reports, printed matter, and sound recordings relating to social change in the
twentieth century, and to promotion of international educational exchanges and intellectual cooperation, especially between
the United States and China. Includes computer data cards, printout of statistics and codebooks used as research material
for the book by Alex Inkeles and David H. Smith,
Becoming Modern: Individual Change in Six Developing Countries (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), relating to the transition of social attitudes of individuals in developing countries. Also includes
digital copy of interviews of Inkeles.
Creator:
Inkeles, Alex, 1920-2010
Creator:
Smith, David Horton
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Boxes 517-519 closed. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our
reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before
providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1985, with additional increments received through 2011.
[Identification of item], Alex Inkeles papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Alex Inkeles received an A.B. degree in 1941 and an A.M. in 1946 from Cornell University. He received
a Ph.D. in 1949 from Columbia University, publishing
Public Opinion in Soviet Russia: A Study in Mass Persuasion in 1950.
A professor of sociology at Harvard University from 1957 to 1971, he published
What Is Sociology? in 1964 and
Social Change in Soviet Russia in 1968.
From 1972 on, Inkeles was a professor of sociology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Inkeles
was an expert on political behavior, modernization, social psychology, and national character. His research focused on the
social structure of an emerging worldwide society and cross-national comparative studies. Inkeles published
Becoming Modern: Individual Change in Six Developing Countries in 1974 and
Exploring Individual Modernity in 1983.
Inkeles held numerous fellowships, including the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California
from 1955 to 1956, a Guggenheim fellowship for study in Israel and the United Kingdom from 1977 to 1978, and a National Academy
of Sciences fellowship in 1992. He was also a Fulbright scholar in Greece in 1977 and in Chile in 1985.
He was elected to three of the most distinguished honorary societies in America: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1962, the American Philosophical Society in 1972, and the National Academy of Sciences in 1981.
Alex Inkeles passed away on July 9, 2010.
Sources: "Alex Inkeles, Senior Fellow" Hoover Institution.
http://www.hoover.org/fellows/alex-inkeles Accessed January 6, 2012
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers consist largely of documentation associated with research projects conducted by Inkeles, a prominent American sociologist,
as well as materials pertaining to his teaching career. There are numerous papers and articles written by Inkeles, writings
by others, and printed matter relating to sociology and to international geographic studies of locations such as the Soviet
Union, China, and India.
A large section of material concerns the Harvard Project on the Socio-Cultural Aspects of Development (later known as the
Harvard Project on Social and Cultural Aspects of Development), a large study headed by Inkeles that collected data on the
basis of interviews conducted in Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Nigeria, and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The data was
subsequently used as the basis for a 1974 book by Inkeles,
Becoming Modern: Individual Change in Six Developing Countries.
A variety of Inkeles' writings include a chronological section of article reprints, various research materials, drafts, papers,
and book chapters. Also included are drafts and research data for Inkeles' books
Exploring Individual Modernity and the edited volume,
Sociology: An Introduction.
The papers also include materials related to Inkeles' research projects, including collected background materials, data sets,
and draft writings on topics such as "Quality of Life," "National Character," and "Adolescence."
Material on Inkeles' academic teaching career consists of lecture notes and course materials for sociology classes, dissertations
and theses written by students, academic administrative material, and documentation on his involvement in organizations such
as the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sociology
Intellectual cooperation
Social change
Education
Civilization, Modern
Developing countries -- Social conditions
United States -- Relations -- China
China -- Relations -- United States
Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China (U.S.)