Social Mobility and the American Business Elite--(II)

r NHE PRECEDING ARTICLE has presented results from a study of the American business elite on the basis of biogra. . phical information contained in the Aational Cyclopedia. The findings call into question, though they do not disprove, the widelyheld hypothesis that the American social structure has become more rigid in the course of its history. A test of this assertion would presumably be a finding which showed that in the early period members of the business elite were more frequently recruited from families of small farmers or manual workers than was the case in the later period. Yet, such a test is difficult to execute and it is of considerabJe advantage that several studies of this problem have been undertaken, which have used different sources of informatioll (though broadly for similar purposes) and which may, therefore, be compared with one another. It is true, of course, that such a comparison is beset with methodological difficulties; nevertheless, a brief comparison will be attempted and may be found useful. A rough cross-checking of the several findir)gs is the best that can be expected. Further comments on the sampling procedure of the various studies are now in order. C. Wright Mills' data from the Dictionary of American Biography included all businessmen for whom sufficient biographical information was available. The total number of cases in this study was I,464, comprising subjects born between I570 and I879. Although all businessmen listed in the D.A.B. were included in the study, the number of cases in the early period was necessarily small.2 A comparison of Mills' study with our own is pertinent here, because both are based on biographical dictionaries. In contrast to Mills' study which included all biographical entries for businessmen contained in the D.A.B., our own study includes a sample of every ninth businessman contained in the J%ational Cyclopedia. Thus, the D.A.B. with an estimated total of I830 entries for businessmen born after I 570 compares with the X.C.A.B. which comprises an estimated total of g,ooo to IO,OOO entries for businessmen born after I77I. This contrast confirms the verbal statement by the

Business · Elite · Political science · Politics · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Publishing and Scholarly Communication

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