The Center for Middletown Studies was established in 1980 and became a permanent academic unit at Ball State in 1984. Its purpose is to capitalize on the attention generated by the publication of Robert and Helen Lynd’s seminal account of Muncie, Indiana, during the 1920s, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture (1929) and on subsequent studies by the Lynds and many others.
For a full history of the Center, follow this link