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E. Digby Baltzell
Edward Digby Baltzell (1915-1996) was an American sociologist, academic and author. He became an eminent professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was credited with popularizing the acronym ...view moreEdward Digby Baltzell (1915-1996) was an American sociologist, academic and author. He became an eminent professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was credited with popularizing the acronym WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). His work shed new light on the ruling elite of America, changing public perceptions of American society and history.
Born to a wealthy Episcopalian family in Philadelphia on November 14, 1915, he attended St. Paul’s School, an Episcopal boarding school in New Hampshire. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and served as a naval aviator during both world wars, before earning his doctorate from Columbia University.
Baltzell joined the faculty of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. He was elected an honorary member of the Philomathean Society, the University of Pennsylvania’s literary and debating society, founded in 1813. He served as a judge for the now-legendary Philo v. Whig-Clio (Princeton University) debate of 1984, donning a London barrister’s white wig and helping to determine the victor (Philo) in the debate “Should there be a Hell?”
He was appointed the Danforth Fellow at the Society for Religion in Higher Education of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1967-1968, Charles Warren Research Fellow at Harvard University from 1972-1973, and Guggenheim Fellow from 1978-1979. He was a member of the American Sociology Association, the American Studies Association, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Baltzell retired in 1986, and became Emeritus Professor of History and Sociology. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.
His published titles include American Business Aristocracy (1962), The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America (1964) and Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia: Two Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Class Authority and Leadership (1979).
He died away on August 17, 1996.view less