Demott, Benjamin 1924–2005
Demott, Benjamin 1924–2005
(Benjamin Haile DeMott)
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born June 2, 1924, in Long Island, NY; died of heart failure, September 29, 2005, in Worthington, MA. Social critic, educator, and author. DeMott was a retired humanities professor at Amherst College who was also a noted cultural critic who was well known for his examination of the influence of American mythology on people's beliefs. After serving in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II, he attended university on the G.I. bill. After completing his B.A. in 1949 at George Washington University, he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1953. While still working on his doctorate, in 1951 DeMott joined the Amherst College faculty, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. As a writer, DeMott was best known for his examinations of American attitudes toward race, class, and gender, especially as these pertained to middle-and upper-class viewpoints. He examined each of these areas in turn in his books The Imperial Middle: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Class (1990), The Trouble with Friendship: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Race (1995), and Killer Woman Blues: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Gender and Power (2000). Fundamental to Americans' misperceptions of problems, according to DeMott, is that they have bought into the American mythology that U.S. citizens enjoy a life of equal opportunity and that any problems that do exist can be resolved through communication and friendship. DeMott retired from Amherst in 1990. He authored many other books, including Supergrow: Essays and Reports on Imagination in America (1969) and Created Equal: Reading and Writing about Class in America (1996); in addition, he penned two novels: The Body's Cage (1959) and A Married Man (1968).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Chicago Tribune, October 3, 2005, section 1, p. 12.
New York Times, October 1, 2005, p. B14.
ONLINE
Amherst College Web site, http://www.amherst.edu/ (September 29, 2005).
Boston.com, http://www.boston.com/ (October 1, 2005).