sociologists, robert s. lynd and his wife, helen merrell lynd, studied muncie in the 1920s. they wrote two books about life in muncie called "middletown: a study in modern american culture", and "middletown in transition". they wanted to study the typical small american city, which of course can not exist. they wanted to see how life in a city had changed from 1890 to 1925. they were going to study a city they way an anthropologist would study a primitive tribe. they decided to look at six parts of living in a city: