Abstract
CS has avoided reviewing documentary DVDs (there are so many worthy ones) because doing so systematically would consume many pages which need to be committed to reviewing books. Yet this film is particularly pertinent to sociologists since it offers uniquely informative interviews with five women who worked with Paul Lazarsfeld, Robert K. Merton, C. Wright Mills, and others at the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Research during World War II, when the men were away and the women had a chance to shine. Some continued work into the 1950s, helping with the personal influence study in Decatur, Illinois, and elsewhere. Each of the women—Thelma Erhlich Anderson, Joan Doris Goldhamer, Gladys Engel Lang, Thelma Herman McCormack, and Yole Granata Sills—continued working after the war, despite having families and dealing with the resistance to females in the workplace that was typical of the time. Their stories reveal the excitement of carrying out innovative research in that setting during a special historical period, largely for war work (e.g., the famous Merton “Kate Smith/Liberty Bond” study), which gave them opportunities to speak at length with everyday Americans in their homes, often in ways that had not been done before. Odd moments also occurred: Thelma McCormack was invited to speak with a Pentagon officer who wanted to know how to “sell” carpet bombing of Russian cities to the American people through correct propaganda, deciding afterward that it was immoral to help him. All the women agreed that they worked very hard, did exciting work, and received little credit. But it was better than working at the New York City Macy’s as a clerk, which during World War II, so we learn, required a masters degree from any woman who wanted to grace their counters. It is good to be reminded how profoundly the world of social research has changed.