Scope and Content Note
The papers of Seymour Martin Lipset (1922-2006) span the years 1824-2013, with the bulk of the material dating from 1985 to 2001. The papers pertain to Lipset's career as a sociologist and political theorist and his body of work, including his work on American exceptionalism, democracy, Judaism in America, political extremism, the politics of academe and intellectuals, social mobility and stratification, socialism, and trade unions. He was most recognized for his comparative studies of democracy and its relationship with economic development. A son of Jewish Russian immigrants, Lipset grew up immersed in the political discussions of his Bronx neighborhood. This environment along with his continuing political interests would later affect the substance of his academic career and interests. Included in the papers are correspondence, writings, speeches, teaching material, notes and notebooks, photographs, projects and studies, printed matter, and other papers. The papers are in English and are organized into the following series: Correspondence, Speech and Engagement File, Subject File, and Writings.
The Correspondence series primarily documents the range of Lipset's activities after his appointment as the Virginia E. Hazel and John T. Hazel Jr. Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. in 1990. Correspondence include exchanges between Lipset and colleagues, government officials, publishers, students, various organizations, and the public. In some cases, Lipset's handwritten draft of a letter or response is accompanied by the typed version along with supporting material. Topics include academe, the American Jewish community and history, Canada, political extremism, neoconservatism, socialism, and other various aspects of sociology or political science. Correspondents include Amitai Etzioni, Larry Jay Diamond, Drora Kass, Everett Carll Ladd, Juan J. Linz, Noah M. Meltz, Earl Raab, David Riesman, and many others. The majority of the correspondence in the collection is professional in nature, but some letters provide insight into the Lipset's mentorship of students and collaborative attitude with other colleagues. Additionally, some of Lipset's letters to publishers show his keen interest in the production and distribution of his books.
The Speech and Engagement File consists of speeches, published and unpublished conference papers, correspondence, printed matter, and other complementary material pertaining to Lipset's many engagements, lectures, and talks. The progression of Lipset's speeches and papers are represented by handwritten, typed, and edited drafts along with final versions of papers or speeches in the collection. Topics featured are American exceptionalism, the American Jewish identity and community, comparative studies of the United States and Canada, democracy, presidential elections, socialism, social mobility, the state of sociology, and student involvement in politics.
The Subject File series includes awards, clippings, correspondence, interviews of Lipset by others, notes, photographs, project files, proposals, teaching material, and printed matter relating to Lipset's career and research interests. Files document Lipset's thoughts about the controversial elections of Samuel P. Huntington to the National Academy of Sciences in 1986 and 1987; involvement and affiliations with different professional organizations; projects and studies, particularly his multi-year project with Drora Kass to study Israelis in America; research interest in social mobility and stratification; and teaching files, primarily from his tenure at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. Also included are a report, transcript, correspondence, and other documentation of Lipset's involvement in two federal cases related to the Canadian Wheat Board in 1996 and 1998.
The Writings series consists of the bulk of the papers. During Lipset's academic career, he authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited over fifty books and 500 articles. He wrote prolifically to contribute a wide range of ideas and findings and to have an intellectual impact in the fields of sociology and political science. The series is comprised of abstracts, articles, books, notes and notebooks, reprints for the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World, and writings by others.
In 1992, a festschrift, Reexamining Democracy: Essays in Honor of Seymour Martin Lipset, was published in Lipset's honor. The festschrift includes an appendix listing Lipset's articles from 1947 to 1991 in a chronological and numerical sequence. Later this list was expanded to include publications up to 2001. Drafts and printed copies of articles arranged according to the numerical sequence of the festschrift appendix are located in the collection under the Festschrift file. Also included in some folders are reprints and translations. The collection includes the majority, but not the complete run of articles in the festschrift appendix. Additionally, some article and folder titles are slightly varied from how they are listed on the appendix.
The collection also contains published and unpublished articles which were not included in the festschrift appendix. These articles are housed under Other articles. Another category of articles in the series reflects Lipset's interest in academia and intellectuals, a topic which dominated much of his research agenda in the 1970s. Lipset and Everett Carll Ladd conducted national surveys of college and university faculty in 1969, 1975, and 1977 and gathered information about the educational, social, and political perspectives of professors. The surveys were usuallly referred to as the Ladd-Lipset surveys, and Lipset and Ladd wrote two series of articles about their 1975 and 1977 findings for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Other related surveys were also conducted in 1972, 1976, and 1979. Drafts and copies of the articles, correspondence, questionnaires, tabulations, reports, codebooks, and other material relating to the surveys are in the papers.
The book file contains reviews of most of Lipset's books from the 1950s to the 1980s. For books published in the 1990s and 2000s, more complete files containing handwritten drafts; typescripts; galleys; correspondence with publishers and collaborating authors or editors; material relating to studies and projects conducted for the books; and other research material are available. Prominent in the series are files related to It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, Lipset's multifaceted answer to Werner Sombart's question, "Why is there no socialism in the United States?". The papers document Lipset's initial work in the 1970s and collaborations with Gary Marks in the 1990s to finally finish the book. Also included are various drafts of the preliminary or completed book and chapters from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Lipset's other topics of interest are also featured in the book file. His career-long interest in comparing the United States and Canada is reflected in The Paradox of American Unionism: Why Americans Like Unions More Than Canadians Do, But Join Much Less, written with Noah M. Meltz, Rafael Gomez, and Ivan Katchanovski. Conditions for democracy are covered in files related to The Democratic Century. Most of the manuscript for this book was completed by Jason M. Lakin after Lipset suffered a debilitating stroke in 2001. Lipset also collaborated with Earl Raab to document the American Jewish experience and community in the United States in Jews and the New American Scene. Furthermore, Lipset's attempt to explain contemporary America, including addressing various aspects of American exceptionalism, is reflected in American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword.