The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character.

RIESMAN, David with Reuel Denney and Nathan Glazer.

Item Number: 5075

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.

First edition of this landmark work. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by David Riesman on the title page and additionally signed with a quote from co-author Nathan Glazer on the title page, which reads, “The idea that men are created equal is both true and misleading. men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other (p. 373) Nathan Glazer.” In near fine condition with light shelfwear to the extremities. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

The Lonely Crowd is considered by many to be the most influential book of the twentieth century. Its now-classic analysis of the 'new middle class' in terms of inner-directed and other-directed social character opened exciting new dimensions in our understanding of the psychological, political, and economic problems that confront the individual in contemporary American society. "[T]he best-selling book by a professional sociologist in American history . . . [with] the widest influence on the nation at large" (Orlando Patterson, New York Times).