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Everett Carll Ladd Jr. (September 24, 1937 – December 8, 1999)[1][2] was an American political scientist based at the University of Connecticut. He was best known for his analysis and collection of public opinion polls. He directed the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut; the Center's mission is to collect and preserve the reports and the original raw computerized data (on IBM cards and tapes) of polls and surveys since the 1930s. At his death, he had amassed 14,000 surveys from many countries. He was also an expert on the opinions and careers of social scientists.[3]

Biography

Ladd was born on September 24, 1937, in Saco, Maine. He graduated from Bates College, and earned a PhD in political science from Cornell University. He was appointed professor of political science at the University Connecticut in 1964, and retired in 1999.

He wrote more than twenty books, including a widely used university textbook on American government (The American Polity: The People and Their Government). He taught at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He was awarded fellowships by the Ford, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations; the Center for International Studies at Harvard University; and the Hoover Institution and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, both at Stanford University. He has been called, "One of the leading realignment theorists."[4]

Ladd was critical of grand models of realignment, and focused instead on highly specific details in major presidential elections.[5][6] In his book Ideology in America he considered a spectrum from parochialism to cosmopolitanism in addition to the usual spectrum between liberalism and conservatism. In a review by L. A. Free it is asserted that cosmopolitanism may account for why "managers of big companies can realistically be described as liberals" and parochialism is why "many of the blue collar group [have] become conservative".[7]

He reached out to the public through a column in The Christian Science Monitor (1987–1995) and op-ed essays in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and elsewhere. The media often interviewed him regarding new polling results. He was a senior editor of Public Opinion magazine and an editor at The American Enterprise magazine.

He died of heart failure on December 8, 1999, at Windham Memorial Community Hospital in Willimantic, Connecticut.[8][9]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
  2. ^ Veilleux, Richard (December 13, 1999). "Everett Ladd, Renowned Political Scientist, Dies". University of Connecticut Advance. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  3. ^ Martin Lipset, Seymour; Ladd, Everett Carll Jr. (1972). "The Politics of American Sociologists". American Journal of Sociology. 78 (1): 67–104. doi:10.1086/225296. JSTOR 2776571. S2CID 143621351.
  4. ^ Fogel, Robert William (2002). The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism. University of Chicago Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780226256634.
  5. ^ Lamis, Renée M. (2009). The Realignment of Pennsylvania Politics Since 1960: Two-party Competition in a Battleground State. Penn State Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780271034195.
  6. ^ Ladd, Everett (1991). Shafer, Byron E. (ed.). The End of Realignment? Interpreting American Electoral Eras. University of Wisconsin Press. Essay – Like Waiting for Godot: The Uselessness of 'Realignment' for Understanding Change in Contemporary American Politics.
  7. ^ Lloyd A. Free (1970) Review: Ideology in America, Public Opinion Quarterly 34(3): 503,4 doi:10.1086/267826
  8. ^ "Everett Ladd Jr., 62, Professor and Polling Expert". The New York Times. December 19, 1999. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  9. ^ "Everett Ladd, Renowned Political Scientist, Dies". University of Connecticut: Advance. December 13, 1999. Retrieved December 22, 2014.

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