Brian David Silver

Background

Brian David Silver was born on April 23, 1944, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Alexander and Gladys Silver. He later established his academic career in the United States, combining political science with Russian area studies and research on comparative political behavior.

Silver married Sally Grosvenor Thrun on June 24, 1969. They had two children, Nathaniel and Rebecca. The family lived in East Lansing, Michigan, during Silver’s long association with Michigan State University.

Education

Silver received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Reed College in 1965. Reed, founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1908, developed a liberal-arts tradition centered on intensive undergraduate study and independent intellectual work.

He continued at the University of Wisconsin, receiving a Master of Arts degree in 1969 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in political science in 1972. His graduate preparation also included a Russian area studies program, completed in 1971. The University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus was an established center for social-science research and area studies during the period in which Silver developed his specialization in Soviet and comparative politics.

Career

Silver began his academic career as an assistant professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee from 1971 to 1975. Florida State, founded as a state-supported institution in the nineteenth century and developed into a comprehensive research university, provided the setting for his first university teaching appointment.

In 1975 he joined Michigan State University as an assistant professor of political science, became an associate professor in 1977, and was promoted to professor in 1982. Michigan State is a public land-grant research university whose institutional mission combines teaching, research, and public service. Silver remained associated with the university for the rest of his academic career and later became Professor Emeritus.

Silver served as chair of Michigan State’s Department of Political Science from 1987 to 1996. He was also a research affiliate of the University of Michigan’s Population Studies Center from 1985, connecting his political-science work with demographic research at one of the major population-study centers in the United States.

His research examined Soviet and post-Soviet politics, nationalities and language, population statistics, political attitudes, political participation, public opinion, and survey response. His work on Soviet bilingual education, party reform, political coercion, census categories, and demographic measurement used survey and statistical evidence to study the relationship between state institutions, identity, and political behavior.

At Michigan State, Silver directed the State of the State Survey from 1994 to 2007. The quarterly survey measured public opinion in Michigan and provided data for research and public discussion. From 2008 to 2012, he directed the university’s Center for Statistical Training and Consulting, which supported statistical and methodological work across academic and applied research projects.

Achievements

• Silver developed influential empirical research on Soviet and post-Soviet political institutions, nationalities, language policy, demography, political attitudes, and public opinion.

• He directed Michigan State University’s State of the State Survey from 1994 to 2007, overseeing a continuing program of quarterly public-opinion research in Michigan.

• He directed Michigan State University’s Center for Statistical Training and Consulting from 2008 to 2012, supporting statistical research and methodological consultation.

Works

• article

  • Public Perceptions and the Dilemmas of Party Reform in the USSR

    (Co-authored with Donna Bahry, this article studied Soviet...)

    1990
  • Intimidation and the Symbolic Uses of Terror in the USSR

    (Co-authored with Donna Bahry, this article used survey ev...)

    1987
  • Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934–1980

    (Co-authored with Barbara A. Anderson, this article examin...)

    1984
  • Measurement and Mismeasurement of the Validity of the Self-Reported Vote

    (Co-authored with Barbara A. Anderson, this article analyz...)

    1986
  • Postmaterialism in World Societies: Is It Really a Value Dimension?

    (Co-authored with Darren W. Davis and Kathleen M. Dowley, ...)

    1999
  • Civil Liberties vs. Security: Public Opinion in the Context of the Terrorist Attacks on America

    (Co-authored with Darren W. Davis, this article analyzed A...)

    2004
  • The Presence of Others and Overreporting of Voting in American National Elections

    (Co-authored with Paul R. Abramson and Barbara A. Anderson...)

    1986

• working paper

  • Nationality and Language in the New Censuses of the Baltic States

    (This working paper examined how the Baltic states counted...)

    2002

Views

Silver’s scholarship treated political attitudes and social identities as subjects for systematic empirical investigation. His studies of Soviet politics, national identity, language, demographic classification, public opinion, and survey response emphasized the importance of measurement, comparative evidence, and attention to the institutional context in which political opinions are formed.

Membership

Silver was a member of the American Political Science Association, the Population Association of America, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. These organizations support research communities concerned with political science, population studies, regional studies, and demographic methods.

• American Political Science Association , United States

• Population Association of America , United States

• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies , United States

• International Union for the Scientific Study of Population , International

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Nate Silver described his parents as academic and community-oriented figures and recalled that his father encouraged his early interest in numbers and political analysis.

Connections

Silver married Sally Grosvenor Thrun on June 24, 1969. They had two children, Nathaniel and Rebecca. Their son Nathaniel, widely known as Nate Silver, became a statistician, writer, and analyst of elections and sports.

Father:

Alexander Silver

Mother:

Gladys Silver

child:

Nathaniel Silver

Their son became known publicly as Nate Silver and worked as a statistician, writer, and election analyst.

child:

Rebecca Silver

Wife:

Sally Grosvenor Thrun

Silver married her on June 24, 1969.

References

• Michigan State University Department of Political Science, Emeriti Faculty Documents Silver’s status as Professor Emeritus, his membership on the Michigan State faculty from 1975, his chairmanship of the Department of Political Science from 1987 to 1996, his direction of the State of the State Survey, and his leadership of the Center for Statistical Training and Consulting.
• Brian Silver Research Profile Provides biographical information on Silver’s education, academic appointments, research interests, and scholarly publications.
• East Lansing Info, East Lansing Native Nate Silver Talks Early Years, Risk Documents family information, Silver’s role as Nate Silver’s father, and his comments about his son’s early interest in numbers and political analysis.
  2023