Carl F Kraenzel

Carl Frederick Kraenzel (November 1, 1906 – July 26, 1980) was an American sociologist. Most of Kraenzel’s work focuses on the people of the Great Plains, covering a range of topics including quality of life, power relations, resource use, and mental health. Kraenzel has been widely published in a variety of professional journals, monographs, research bulletins, special reports and books in the fields of rural sociology, Great Plains sociology, and natural resource sociology. His most known work, The Great Plains in Transition describes the challenges of social life and connections to the natural environments in the North American semiarid region located between the 98th meridian and the Rocky Mountains. Born in Hebron, North Dakota, Kraenzel grew up on a farm in the countryside of the Northern Great Plains and witnessed first-hand the challenges of rural life and living in the region. Kraenzel attended the University of North Dakota for his undergraduate degree, and continued on to do graduate work at the University of Minnesota, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his Ph.D in 1935. Kraenzel served as a professor of sociology at Montana State University in Bozeman for many years, and later at the University of Texas at El Paso.