Preliminary Inventory of the Warren Miller Papers

Warren Edward Miller was born on March 26, 1924 in Hawarden, Iowa. After serving in the United States Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946, he attended the University of Oregon, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (1948) and his Master of Arts in Political Science (1950). He continued his education at the Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and graduated with his Ph.D. in Political Science in 1954. In 1951, Miller began work with the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Here, he worked as an Assistant Study Director (1951-1953), as a Study Director (1953-1956), as a Research Associate (1956-1959), as a Program Director (1959-1968), as a Research Coordinator for the Political Behavior Program (1968-1970), and as Principal Investigator of National Election Studies beginning in 1977. Miller also served as the Director of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research (1970-1981) and as Program Director at the Center for Political Studies beginning in 1982.

In 1954, Miller left the University of Michigan to become an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. He returned to the University of Michigan in June of 1956 and continued his work at the Survey Research Center in addition to teaching in the Political Science department, where he served as an Assistant Professor (1956-1958), as an Associate Professor (1958-1963), and as a full Professor (1963-1993). Beginning in 1981, Miller also worked as a professor of Political Science at Arizona State University, where he was appointed Regents' Professor in 1988.

Miller was active in a number of domestic and international professional associations during his career, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, the International Society of Political Psychology, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, of which he was a fellow from 1961 to 1962. Miller served as Executive Director of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research from 1962 to 1970 and as Associate Director of the same organization beginning in 1978. He also served as President of the American Political Science Association (1979-1980) and of the Social Science History Association (1979-1980).

Miller's research concentrated on individual voter behavior and participation in national politics, reception of and reaction to communications concerning political events, and the representation process linking constituents and their elected officials. Among his many publications are The Voter Decides (1954), American Voter (1960), Elections and the Political Order (1966), Leadership and Change: Presidential Elections from 1952-1976 (1977), Parties in Transition (1986), Without Consent (1988), and The American National Election Studies Data Sourcebook, 1952-1986 (1989). Miller also contributed articles to a number of professional publications and served on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including The American Political Science Review (1966-1971), Computers and the Humanities (1969-1971), Social Science History (1976-1991), Social Science Review (1973), and the Sage Electoral Studies Yearbook (1974).

Miller was recognized for his research and service through a number of awards, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University in 1974, The Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan in 1977, and the Distinguished Professor Award from Arizona State University in 1981. He was further honored by the creation of the Warren E. Miller Award for Intellectual Accomplishment and Service by the American Political Science Association in 1995 and the creation of the Warren E. Miller Award for Meritorious Service by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in 1993.

Warren E. Miller died January 30, 1999 in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 74.