Background on John Manfredi
One of four young sociologists who joined the faculty at UMass Amherst in the years after the Second World War, John Manfredi carried the entire load of teaching theory from 1948 to 1967. A native of Philadelphia and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1942), Manfredi came to Amherst after completing his MA at Harvard in 1948, teaching while simultaneously completing a dissertation on "The Relationship of Class-Structured Pathologies to the Contents of Popular Periodical Fiction, 1936-1940" (Harvard, 1951).
A specialist in social theory and cultural systems, Manfredi taught both sociology and anthropology for several years as his interests evolved from a focus on class and social pathology to Italian sociological theory to the sociology of religion and art. A valued mentor and inspiring teacher, he wrote two monographs: Periodical Resources in Italian Sociology (1977) and his best known work, The Social Limits of Art (1982). Manfredi retired from teaching in 1985 and died in February 1993.
Scope of collection
The John Manfredi collection contains a suite of articles and class essays from his days as a graduate student in sociology at Harvard and his early years on faculty at UMass Amherst. Reflecting his training in theory and his developing interest in the sociology of art, the collection also includes a handful of unpublished works and a particularly interesting set of notes on classes taken by Manfredi in the mid-1940s under eminent figures such as Talcott Parsons, Carle C. Zimmerman, and P.A. Sorokin.
Inventory
Course Paper: "Heaven and earth: China and India" (submitted to P.A. Sorokin and Talcott Parsons)
1944 May 26
Box 1: 1
Course Paper: "Medieval economic institutions and the problem of security" (submitted to Talcott Parsons and Carle C. Zimmerman)
1945 Feb. 9
Box 1: 2
Course Paper: "Work, place, and people: A study in the mechanics of Italian-American maladjustments in the American milieu with special reference to the criteria of the Le Play School" (submitted to P.A. Sorokin)
1944 May 26
Box 1: 3
"The Crisis of the church in the mid-century" (talk at St. Anselm's)
ca.1958
Box 1: 4
Diplomas
1938-1952
Box 1: 5, :
Manfredi's diplomas from University of Pennsylvania (BA 1942) and Harvard (PhD,. 1951) are housed with oversized materials
"A discussion of method in social science" (Honors thesis in Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania)
1942 May
Box 1: 6
Dissertation precis: "The relationship of class-structured pathologies to the contents of popular periodical fiction, 1936-1940"
1950 Sept.
Box 1: 7
Junior Annals, Class of 1942 (University of Pennsylvania)
1941
Box 1: 8
Korson, Henry J. (letter recommending Manfredi for a job)
1952
Box 1: 9
Miscellaneous
1946-1974
Box 1: 10
Notes and drafts of papers
ca.1945-1950
Box 1: 11
Notes on urban sociology
ca.1951
Box 1: 12
Request for research help to the Faculty Research Council: "Relationship of demographic instability to the incidence of sectarianism"
1959 Mar. 11
Box 1: 13
"The Riesman characterology: a close look" (paper rejected by American Sociological Review
1958-1959
Box 1: 15
Saturday Evening Post article (draft)
ca.1958
Box 1: 16
"The Social and Cultural Matrix of Art"
1980
Box 1: 17
The Social Limits of Art: Correspondence
1981-1983
Box 1: 18
"Societal complexity and limited alternatives"
1954
Box 1: 19
"Toward a sociology of aesthetics"
Undated
Box 1: 20
"The treatment of upward mobility in the Saturday Evening Post" (article rejected by the American Journal of Sociology
1938-1952
Box 1: 21
"An urban lower white-collar group: a case study in social pathology and non-economic orientations of behavior"
1948 July
Box 1: 22
Vita and letters of support
1974-1980
Box 1: 23
Sociology 13 -- Sociology of the Family: course taught by Carle C. Zimmerman
1944
Box 2: 1
Sociology IVC -- Economics and the Social Structure: course taught by Talcott Parsons
1944-1945
Box 2: 2
Sociology III -- Social change and social progress: course taught by Carle C. Zimmerman
1944-1945
Box 2: 3
Social Pathology: course taught by Robert Freed Bales
1946
Box 2: 4
Sociology I 3: course taught by Carle C. Zimmerman
1946
Box 2: 5
Sociology 9 -- Regional Sociology of the U.S.: course taught by Carle C. Zimmerman
1946
Box 2: 6
Social relations Ih: course taught by George C. Homans
1947
Box 2: 7
Administrative information
Search terms
Subjects
- Sociology--Study and teaching.
- University of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty.
- University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Sociology.
Contributors
- Manfredi, John, 1920- . [main entry]
- Parsons, Talcott, 1902-1979.
- Sorokin, Pitirim Aleksandrovich, 1889-1968.
- Zimmerman, Carle Clark, 1897-1983.
Link to similar SCUA collections
