Daniel Lerner papers

The collection documents Daniel Lerner's career as a political scientist, especially his research on European elites. The bulk of the collection focuses on his research in the 1950s and 1960s. Although he spent 25 years as a professor at MIT, the collection contains little information about his activities as a teacher or member of the Department of Political Science. Lerner’s work as a member of MIT's Center for International Studies (CENIS) is represented by his research on European elites and his publications on the role of communication and technology in the modernization of underdeveloped countries. A small amount of biographical information includes Lerner's doctoral thesis (New York University, 1948) Sykewar, ETO, which reflects his experience as a chief intelligence officer with the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during World War II (box 1). His curriculum vitae, a list of his publications through 1976, and files of news clips provide a partial overview of his professional activities (box 1).

Information on Lerner's activities before MIT is limited. His work as the representative to the Library of Congress Mission in Europe from Stanford University's Hoover Institute (1946-1947) is detailed in reports to his superior. There are no papers from his term as director of the International Studies Program at the Hoover Institute or his concurrent appointment as adjunct professor of sociology at Stanford University.

With the cooperation of CENIS and the University of Paris, Lerner founded the Institut d'Etudes Européennes in 1953 and served as its research director until 1965. In this role he conducted the European Elite Panel Survey (TEEPS), a long-term study of the opinions of European leaders on political, economic, and military issues. The aim of the study was to learn how European elites viewed their diminished power in the postwar era and how they envisioned their futures. The surveys spanned a decade, allowing Lerner and his assistants to compare results from different years. This comparative, empirical approach to social research, which was unique for the time, built on the idea of social science as comparative history promoted by Harold Lasswell, Lerner's colleague at the Hoover Institute. Lerner's work complemented research in international communication being done at the same time by other members of CENIS. Correspondence between Lerner and CENIS director Max Millikan and CENIS's International Communication Program director Ithiel de Sola Pool (box 6) document their exchange of ideas in the formative stages of TEEPS.

TEEPS surveys of elites were conducted in Germany, France, and Great Britain in 1955, 1956, 1959, 1961, and 1965. Information on the administration and methodology of the surveys is located in correspondence, memos, survey instructions, and survey design files for Britain and France (boxes 1, 2, 6, and 7). The correspondence between Lerner and his research assistants describes the field work, records problems of interviewing and data analysis, and documents the progress of the project (boxes 1, 2, and 6). The information about the study available in the collection is incomplete; the depth of material varies with countries and dates. There are no files on the 1955 surveys, or on any of the German surveys.

Lerner's use of the ADMINS computer system at MIT to analyze the survey data was a technological innovation that provided sophisticated data management. The collection contains the code books, coding notes, and data totals, called survey marginal distributions, used by the researchers in computer analysis of the data. The process is described in Annex 7 of the book Euratlantica (1969), written by Lerner and Morton Gordon.

The survey was also administered to members of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1965 to compare their views with those of other elites. Completed surveys, referred to as questionnaires in Lerner's files, are located in box 6. The CERN survey is described in Annex 3 of Euratlantica.

The United States Naval Test Ordnance (NOTS) provided support for TEEPS from 1963 to 1965. Lerner's relationship with NOTS is detailed in several proposals and reports (box 10).

TEEPS and the information on European elites gained from the survey is the focus of Euratlantica. Early drafts and research notes describe the development of the book (boxes 11 and 12).

A second major project documented in the collection is Lerner's research on communication patterns and social change in the Middle East. Lerner was one of the first scholars to study the effects of modernization on the Middle East. He conducted field surveys in the Middle East as a member of a research project supported by the Columbia School of Applied Research and the Center for International Studies (CENIS) at MIT. The surveys asked participants about their exposure to and opinions of various media sources, specifically radio, television and newspapers. Lerner published his research on the Middle East in The Passing of Traditional Society (1958). The completed surveys found in the collection may not have been administered by him; handwritten notes and signatures suggest that they were performed by research assistants.

Lerner published consistently throughout his career. His writings reflect his interest in communication, development, and technology as well as his research on elites. France Defeats EDC, edited by Lerner and Raymond Aron, is well documented in the collection by research notes and correspondence (box 12) as is Static and Dynamic France (box 13).