Mnemonic multiples: the case of the columbia panel studies

J Hist Behav Sci. 2015 Winter;51(1):10-30. doi: 10.1002/jhbs.21698. Epub 2014 Dec 12.

Abstract

This article uses the Bureau of Applied Social Research's mid-century book-length panel studies-The People's Choice (1944), Voting (1954), and Personal Influence (1955)-to identify and illustrate a neglected phenomenon in the remembered history of social science: mnemonic multiples. The article describes the way that the Bureau books, originally published into a post-World War II interdisciplinary social science milieu, have since come to be remembered along distinct disciplinary tracks by sociologists, political scientists, and communication researchers. A contextual analysis of references to the Bureau studies in the flagship journals of the three disciplines, from 1960 through 2011, provides tentative support for the mnemonic multiples concept.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Books / history*
  • History, 20th Century
  • History, 21st Century
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Politics
  • Social Sciences / history*
  • United States
  • World War II