The Production of Modernization: Daniel Lerner, Mass Media, and the Passing of Traditional Society .

The Production of Modernization: Daniel Lerner, Mass Media, and the Passing of Traditional Society. Hemant Shah. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011. Published in 1958, Daniel Lerner's The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East represented an early attempt to outline a theory for societal transformation based on the superiority of Western - and more specifically, American - cultural, social, economic, and political structures. Written at the height of the Cold War, the book was an instant classic and became a foundational text in the studies of mass media and modernization. In The Production of Modernization, Hemant Shah explores the intellectual origins of Lerner's monograph by situating Lerner's network of military and academic benefactors and colleagues in the post- World War II context where social scientists like Lerner worked with the state and private foundations to battle communism. Shah's sources include Lerner's military records in addition to his published and private works, correspondence, and journals. Shah also cites personal correspondence with Lerner's surviving acquaintances. With the exception of the first chapter, the book is organized chronologically with each chapter addressing Lerner's experiences, and intellectual developments at various stages in his professional career. Chapter one explores the development of Lerner's unique version of modernization theory that broke in at least two ways with previous theories that conceived of Western superiority in biological or racial terms. First, he based his model on notions of cultural and intellectual superiority, identifying three phases in the process of cultural maturity - the traditional, the transitional, and the modern. Lerner situated the modern society (by which he meant the society that embraced capitalism, technology, and respect for women and education) as the most culturally (and economically) developed. He also recognized the importance of the elites and of mass media in the process of modernization, as they provided symbols to the masses while mass media served as propaganda driving the modernization process. Shah then summarizes Lerner's experiences as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he developed an admiration for the forms of scientific analysis used by his colleagues in the Psychological Warfare Division as he studied the use of propaganda in the mobilization of public opinion. Chapter three documents the earliest phase in Lerner's career as a social scientist, when he worked for Stanford University at the Hoover Institute for War, Revolution, and Peace. At Stanford, Lerner completed and published his dissertation, whereas he researched prestigious media publications and analyzed policy makers in strategic countries, and learned important methodologies for cross-cultural comparisons that he would use in The Passing of Traditional Society. …