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Raymond Gastil

American sociologist

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ7298799
Source-derived summary

Raymond Duncan Gastil (December 19, 1931 – December 14, 2010) was an American social scientist, best known for evaluating political freedom in the Freedom in the World reports published by Freedom House.

Biography

Gastil received his BA (social relations, 1953), MA (Middle Eastern Studies, 1956) and PhD (Social Science, 1959) from Harvard University. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Pakistan (1953–4), and taught anthropology and social science at the University of Oregon. He spent seven years as a researcher at the Hudson Institute, analysing national security and other policy issues, and contributed to the institute's 1968 book, Can We Win in Vietnam?. In the early 1970s he worked at the Battelle Memorial Institute. From 1977 to 1988 he was Director of Freedom House's annual survey.

Books

(co-editor), Can We Win in Vietnam?, Armbruster et al. (Praeger, 1968).

(co-editor), Why ABM?: Policy issues in the missile defense controversy, Holst and Schneider, eds. (Pergamon, 1969).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Raymond Gastil” as american sociologist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1931, 2010, 1953, 1956—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1931-12-19. The account is most persuasive where Raymond, Gastil and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american sociologist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7298799. VIAF identifies the subject as 17302927. The Library of Congress control number is n80013468. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2010, 1953 and 1956.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Raymond Gastil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.