From a field of very impressive entries, the committee has unanimously decided that Sarah Igo is the winner of the 2004 FHHS Dissertation Award. “America Surveyed: The Making of a Social Scientific Public, 1920-1960” (Princeton, 2001) is an impressive history of social surveys, developed through a masterful examination of three exemplary instances: the Middletown study of Muncie, Indiana; the political polls created by Roper and Gallup; and Alfred Kinsey’s famous studies of American sexual behavior. Igo shows that these studies fit together beautifully, offering a panoramic view of public uses of social knowledge in America and proving the significance of that knowledge in relation to a broad social and cultural history. The archival collections used by Igo included letters and clippings that allow her to make her history reciprocal. The public is not merely an object of social science here, but is also a participant (or a multitude of participants), one that helps to shape the studies, and then talks back in response to them.
We were highly impressed not only by the level of research, but also by the quality of the writing, which made the dissertation a delight to read. Would it be rash to anticipate that a movie might be made about one or another part of this work? At the very least, this work will make an excellent book, and it is highlydeserving of t his award.
The 2004 FHHS Dissertation Award Committee: Hunter Crowther-Heyck (chair), Richard Keller, and Theodore Porter