Edward Digby Baltzell (1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 1996) was an American sociologist, academic and author.
Baltzell was born to a wealthy, Episcopalian family. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940. Before entering the Ivy League however, "Digby" attended St. Paul's School, an Episcopalian boarding school in New Hampshire. After World War II service as a naval aviator he earned his doctorate from Columbia University. He later became the eminent Penn sociologist credited with the invention of the acronym WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). The term changed perceptions of American society and even American history, bringing forth new insight into the workings of the ruling elite of America.
Those who knew "Digby" describe him as a dapper figure in tweed jackets [which were once featured in a J. Peterman catalogue] and bow ties, popular in a slightly aloof way, but always courteous and accessible. He could often be seen pedaling an old one-speed bicycle between his DeLancey Place home and Penn's West Philadelphia campus. Far more important to him than his personal preference for English clothes and for the ethos and manners of the gentleman was his conviction that aristocracy was necessary for the provision of leadership, both nationally and internationally. He felt that social stratification was inevitable, but that if the highest socio-economic levels were not accessible on the basis of merit (regardless of ethnic or racial background) society would degenerate into harmful caste-dictated divisions. His most productive years as an academic and social commentator corresponded to the actual relaxation of social barriers that took place in the late 1960s and which are presently ubiquitous. It was apparent to students in his classes that he disdained the use of mathematical and statistical models as crutches to support sociological hypotheses. During the Vietnam conflict he once asked a class of predominantly male students the odds of being shot if one were sent into combat in Southeast Asia. After dismissing a few statistical responses from students, he gave the answer. "Fifty-Fifty," he declared. "Either you will or you won't."
After serving on the faculty of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1947 to 1986, he retired in 1986. Until his death in 1996 Baltzell was Emeritus Professor of History and Sociology. He was elected an honorary member of the Philomathean Society, the University of Pennsylvania's literary and debating society founded in 1813. He served as a judge for the now-legendary Philo v. Whig-Clio [Princeton University] debate of 1984, donning a London barrister's white wig and helping to determine the victor [Philo] in the debate "Should there be a Hell?" which was featured on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and in the Congressional Record.
His accomplishments include being appointed to the Danforth Fellow at the Society for Religion in Higher Education of the Princeton Theology Seminary from 1967 to 1968, Charles Warren Research Fellow at Harvard University from 1972 to 1973, and Guggenheim Fellow from 1978 to 1979. He is member of the American Sociology Association, the American Studies Association, and the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Although raised in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, he had houses on Delancey Place in Philadelphia and in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Although an expert historian of Social Register clubs and frequently asked to join many of them, he chose to be a member of only one - the Franklin Inn Club in Philadelphia - where he was a frequent luncheon guest during the last years of his life.
On August 17 (1996) while vacationing at his summer home "Digby" was stricken with chest pains and hospitalized at Hyannis, then moved to Boston, where he died at Brigham and Women's Hospital at the age of 80. Baltzell's first wife, the artist Jane Piper, had died in 1991. At his death he was survived by two daughters, Eve and Jan Baltzell, his second wife, Jocelyn Carlson Baltzell and two stepdaughters Justina Carlton and Julie Carlson Groves. He is also survived by a brother, Dr. William Hewson Baltzell, IV, and a niece [Virginia Baltzell] and two nephews.
He once dedicated one of his books to "all my undergraduate friends at the University of Pennsylvania, many of them grandsons of immigrants to the urban frontier, who, in spite of their possessing too many Jaguars and mink-coated mothers, have constantly been renewed by faith in the American Dream of unlimited opportunity".
A group of devoted former students are currently working to raise funds for a carved stone gargoyle in Digby's likeness which will be added to the University of Pennsylvania's famed Quadrangle dormitory in preparation for a celebration of centennial of Digby's birth in 2015.
See also
| Main | Lists |
Published Books
- Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class (1958)
- American Business Aristocracy (1962)
- The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America (1964)
- Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia: Two Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Class Authority and Leadership (1979)
- The Protestant Establishment Revisited (1991)
- Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification (1994)
- Sporting Gentlemen: Men's Tennis from the Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar (1995)
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
