Warner, William Lloyd

Born on October 26, 1898, in Redlands, California, William Lloyd Warner received an A.B. degree with a major in anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. He did graduate work in anthropology at Harvard University, then traveled to Australia for his dissertation research on Aboriginal social organization. While in Australia, Warner came to appreciate the structural-functionalist approach of the British social anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. He returned to the Harvard faculty as an assistant professor (although he never earned the Ph.D.), where he remained until 1935, when he accepted a joint appointment in the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Chicago. In 1959, he became a professor of social research at Michigan State University.

Although his Australian work could have led him to continue studying tribal societies, Warner was [Page 865]committed to working in “modern” societies. To this end, Warner directed a large, multifaceted research project in Newburyport, Massachusetts, from 1930 to 1934. Over the following two decades, Warner authored or coauthored a series of five monographs on what he called “Yankee City”: The Social Life of a Modern Community (1941), The Status System of a Modern Community (1942), The Social Systems of American Ethnic Groups (1945), The Social System of the Modern Factory—The Strike: A Social Analysis (1947), and The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans (1959).

Following the Yankee City model, Warner's influential volume, Social Class in America: A Manual of Procedure for the Measurement of Social Status, appeared in 1949. His approach to social class, emphasizing attitudes and perceptions rather than ancestry and economic position, dominated American social science for several decades. His sixfold hierarchy included three classes—upper, middle, and lower—with each divided into upper and lower segments. This framework led Warner to turn his attention to other areas of inequality in American society. In this spirit, he coauthored Who Shall Be Educated: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunities (1944) and Democracy in Jonesville: A Study in Quality and Inequality (1949).

While directing the Yankee City project, Warner joined Elton Mayo (Harvard Business School) in research at the Western Electric Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois, where Warner was responsible for designing group experiments. In 1946, Warner's interests in applied social science led him to cofound Social Research, Inc., a consulting firm that specialized in media research. These experiences led Warner to author or coauthor several volumes on corporate and government management: Big Business Leaders in America (1955), Occupational Mobility in American Business and Industry, 1928–1952 (1955), Industrial Man: Businessmen and Business Organizations (1959), The Corporation in the Emergent American Society (1962), and The American Federal Executive: A Study of the Social and Personal Characteristics of the Civilian and Military Leaders of the United States Federal Government (1963). His final book on largescale organizations was called The Emergent American Society (1967).

Warner's prolific and innovative contributions to understanding social life in America are reflected in his influential volume American Life: Dream and Reality (1953; revised edition 1962). Beginning with an analysis of Memorial Day rituals and concluding with a social and psychological analysis of the media, Warner offered his views about major themes of American culture and society, including social class and color caste, the family, individual opportunity and social mobility, the factory and the community, ethnic and sectarian groups, and associations. During his generation, only the anthropologist Margaret Mead rivaled Warner as a commentator on American society. He died on May 23, 1970, in Chicago.

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