%0 Journal Article %1 peters_part_2006 %A Peters, John D. %D 2006 %J Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences %K classic-work-treatment externalist intellectual judaism religion sociology united-states %P 97--114 %R 10.1177/0002716206292425 %T The Part Played by Gentiles in the Flow of Mass Communication: On the Ethnic Utopia of Personal Influence %V 608 %X Personal Influence is not only a landmark study within the sociological literature on networks, influence, and decision making. It is also an allegory of Jewish-ethnic identity in mid-twentieth-century America and a side-ways commentary on modern Jewish involvement in communications. The book participates in a utopian imagination of society in which Jews and Gentiles alike would be centrally involved in the flow of communications. It turns from Gentile-style status toward Jewish-style connectivity as the basis of social power; defends socially grounded conceptions of mental life against Gentile individualism; insists in its notion of the two-step flow on the rabbinic principle that a text without a commentary is meaningless; and performs some amazing intellectual-moral-historical footwork with the most inconspicuous of all its central terms, '' people.'' In all these things, it can be read as a '' Jewish'' text in some sense.

@article{peters_part_2006, abstract = {Personal Influence is not only a landmark study within the sociological literature on networks, influence, and decision making. It is also an allegory of Jewish-ethnic identity in mid-twentieth-century America and a side-ways commentary on modern Jewish involvement in communications. The book participates in a utopian imagination of society in which Jews and Gentiles alike would be centrally involved in the flow of communications. It turns from Gentile-style status toward Jewish-style connectivity as the basis of social power; defends socially grounded conceptions of mental life against Gentile individualism; insists in its notion of the two-step flow on the rabbinic principle that a text without a commentary is meaningless; and performs some amazing intellectual-moral-historical footwork with the most inconspicuous of all its central terms, '' people.'' In all these things, it can be read as a '' Jewish'' text in some sense.}, added-at = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200}, author = {Peters, John D.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2d7c00434784acdf096ae5a3d34ff9098/jpooley}, doi = {10.1177/0002716206292425}, interhash = {d36693f1f49eeef3f23c1a5de5508084}, intrahash = {d7c00434784acdf096ae5a3d34ff9098}, journal = {Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences}, keywords = {classic-work-treatment externalist intellectual judaism religion sociology united-states}, pages = {97--114}, timestamp = {2019-08-29T01:56:31.000+0200}, title = {The {{Part Played}} by {{Gentiles}} in the {{Flow}} of {{Mass Communication}}: {{On}} the {{Ethnic Utopia}} of {{Personal Influence}}}, volume = 608, year = 2006 }