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Carl Frederick Kraenzel, (November 1st, 1906 – July 26th, 1980) was an American sociologist. 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 semiarid region located east the Rocky Mountains and extending westward to the 98th meridian. 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 living in the region during the drought of 1917-1919. 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. 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.