Dr Joseph Ryan, a historian at the United States Army talks about his work on sociologist Samuel Stouffer the GI survey during the Second World War. Samuel Stouffer was a little-known sociologist from Sac City, Iowa. In his role of the Army Information and Education Division’s Research Branch, he spearheaded an effort to understand the American citizen-soldier, his reasons for fighting, and his overall Army experience during the Second World War. Using surveys and interviews, he transformed general assumptions about leadership and soldiering into a sociological understanding of a draftee…