Finding aid for the Maurice Klain Research Papers : Cleveland Area Leadership Studies, Series II

History of the Maurice Klain Cleveland Area Leadership Studies

The Maurice Klain Research Papers: Cleveland Area Leadership Studies were produced by Dr. Klain, a political scientist at Western Reserve University (Case Western Reserve University since 1967), as a scholarly project designed to identify, describe and analyze leadership, decision-making, influence and power in Greater Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1950s and 1960s.

Maurice Klain was born in 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1940. He received his masters from Oberlin College in 1941 and took his Ph. D. at Yale University in 1949. He taught at Yale, Connecticut College, Douglas College for Women at Rutgers University and Amherst before coming to WRU in 1949. He became an associate professor in 1956 and was chairman of the political science department from 1972 to 1974. In 1983, he was given emeritus status.

The heart of his study is embodied in over 700 transcripts of interviews conducted by Klain and his graduate students from 1957 to 1965. The people interviewed were eminent figures in the business and professional life of Cleveland, notables in government, law and politics, as well as prominent figures in education, journalism, religion, philanthropy and nongovernmental civic institutions, leaders of ethnic communities, and activists in other demographic categories. The research was supported by grants principally from the Stern Family Fund, the Social Science Research Council and, locally, the Cleveland Foundation. Additional funding was provided locally by the Fox Foundation, the Lubrizol Foundation, and Mr. Samuel H. Miller of Forest City Enterprises.

Scope and Content

Maurice Klain Research Papers: Cleveland Area Leadership Studies, Series II, 1937-1972 and undated, consist of correspondence, memoranda, interview transcripts, a subject file, questionnaires, raw data from Klain's studies on endorsements and voter tabulations, interpretative computer printouts, and newspaper clippings.

This collection will be extremely useful to the social scientist or quantitative historian who wishes to correlate part or all of the questionnaires in this survey as they reflect not only Cleveland's leadership attitudes, but also the attitudes of a large number of individuals in various professions. The respondents to the questionnaire were given anonymity, though most from the Fifty Club were identified by Klain. The questionnaires were tailored for each specific group, though they all contained questions concerning attitudes about race, the political process, and social issues. In addition, each respondent was asked about their income, social background, vocation, and reading habits. Series II consists of more than a thousand questionnaires distributed to teachers, students, clergy, lawyers, policemen, civic leaders, and politicians to determine their political and social attitudes on a number of issues including civil rights .

It will also be useful for those wishing to examine and correlate Klain's data on candidates' endorsements. The clipping file also provides a good base of information on various civic issues such as busing, the metropolitan government issues, and the mayoral races in the Cleveland metropolitan area from 1956-1969. This collection supplements the interviews found in Series I.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Use of this collection is restricted. Consult the Western Reserve Historical Society Curator of Manuscripts for details.

Restrictions on Access

Access to this collection is restricted. Consult the Western Reserve Historical Society Curator of Manuscripts for more information.

Researchers should also consult MS 4219 Maurice Klain Research Papers: Cleveland Area Leadership Studies

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4305 Maurice Klain Research Papers: Cleveland Area Leadership Studies, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Dr. Maurice Klain, 1983 and 1985.

Processing Information

Processed by Richard W. Hite and Daniel J. Linke 1988.

Detailed Description of The Collection