“The Passing of Traditional Societies” is based on empirical material obtained from fieldwork and interviews conducted over a decade in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iran. Lerner proceeded from the fact that in the process of modernization, all societies move in the same direction, which was set by the Western countries that had completed modernization earlier. However, this “Western model,” according to Lerner, is, in fact, global. It acquired its name only due to a historical confluence of circumstances. Countries of the North Atlantic were the first to carry out the processes of secularization, urbanization, and industrialization. Analyzing the modernization of lifestyles based on empirical material, Lerner pays the most attention to the growth of population mobility, the spread of literacy, and the mass media.
For example, Lerner dwelled on the problem of restrictions for modernization. Among the most critical factors hindering development, he attributed ethnocentrism. Lerner states, “From the West came the stimuli which undermined traditional society in the Middle East; for the reconstruction of a modern society that will operate efficiently” (Lerner 47). The author contrasts societies, at the same time declaring that the focus on cultural identity impedes progress.
I believe that this concept of modernization designed to solve the problems of transition from “backwardness” to “modernity” was a specific product of the era after the Second World War. Built on numerous simplifications, the modernization theory interprets the historical process as one-line and non-alternative (Dunmire 23). The paradigm proposed by Lerner does not explain the development principles of many countries, such as China, Russia, or Cuba, and therefore loses its relevance in modern days.