ON COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE: Selected Papers

MAY COONTAIN MARKUP

Gabriel Tarde. Edited and with an Introduction by TERRY N. CLARK

PrefaceSOME OF THE NECLECT of Tarde in the English-speakingworld is due to the fact that several of his more serious works have never been translated. Accordingly, to present a meaningful sam-pling of his many contributions, it has been necessary to translate for the first time more than three-quarters of the selections contained in the present volume.The hackneyed dictum that there are no satisfactory translations must inevitably come to the mind of anyone attempting lorender Tarde's work in English, for he was a a stylist who enjoyed manipulating language as much as he did ideas. One is tempted to simplify his complex verbal constructions by rewording them in more contemporary English prose, especially when he deals with technical questions. But this would be to destroy the poetic elements of his work. While this is by no means a poetic translation—for we are not poets--we have retained some of Tarde's stylistic gymnastics rather than force him into the idiom of contemporary social science. For his own set of technical concepts, which are only partially translatable into those currently in use, we have sought the closest English equivalents.The translation was accomplished in three stages. N. ClaireEllis, a graduate student at the Universily of Chicago, prepared afirst draft, which was then checked and edited line by line by Priscilla P. Clark, assistant professor of French at the University ofIllinois at Chicago Circle, Finally, Terry N. Clark reviewed the translation once again, revising it and adding editorial comments in conjunction with Priscilla P. Clark.

CHICAGO AND LONDON. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. 1969. 320p.