Research Expertise and Interest

social networks, American social history, technology, urban sociology, sociology

Research Description

Most of Claude Fischer's early research focused on the social psychology of urban and rural life and on social networks, finally coming together in To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City (1982). In recent years, he has worked on American social history, beginning with a study of the early telephone, America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (1992); a study of social trends since 1900 written with Michael Hout, Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years (2006); and a synthetic book covering all of American history, Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character (2010). His most recent book is a study of changes in personal networks, Still Connected: Family and Friends in America Since 1970 (2011). Along the way, Fischer has worked on other topics, including writing a book on inequality with five Berkeley colleagues, Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth (1996). Fischer is currently wrapping up a six-year project funded by the National Institute of Aging on personal networks. He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.