US Public Opinion since the 1930s
US Public Opinion since the 1930s

Author: Richard Seltzer

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-01-25

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1793653518

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This is both a history book and a book on public opinion. George Gallup, who pioneered survey sampling methods and whose name in fact became synonymous with public opinion polls, conducted his first survey in 1936. The main part of this book starts there as well. Dedicating a chapter to each decade from the 1930s to the present, Seltzer discusses historical events of the period and what the U.S. public thought of those events according to Gallup polls and other public opinion surveys. Each chapter is divided into the following categories: world events; U.S. politics; race; sex and gender; the economy; science, technology and the environment; and popular trends. Within each chapter, approximately 40 survey questions were chosen for more extended analysis: breaking down the results by race, age, gender, education, region, and political party.

A Troubled Birth
A Troubled Birth

Author: Susan Herbst

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-11-26

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 022681310X

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Introduction: Birth of a Public -- President in the Maelstrom: FDR as Public Opinion Theorist -- Twisted Populism: Pollsters and Delusions of Citizenship -- A Consuming Public: The Strange and Magnificent New York World's Fair -- Radio Embraces Race and Immigration, Awkwardly -- Interlude: A Depression Needn't Be So Depressing -- Public Opinion and Its Problems: Some Ways Forward.

A Troubled Birth
A Troubled Birth

Author: Susan Herbst

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-11-08

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 022681307X

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Pollsters and pundits armed with the best public opinion polls failed to predict the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Is this because we no longer understand what the American public is? In A Troubled Birth, Susan Herbst argues that we need to return to earlier meanings of "public opinion" to understand our current climate. Herbst contends that the idea that there was a public—whose opinions mattered—emerged during the Great Depression, with the diffusion of radio, the devastating impact of the economic collapse on so many people, the appearance of professional pollsters, and Franklin Roosevelt’s powerful rhetoric. She argues that public opinion about issues can only be seen as a messy mixture of culture, politics, and economics—in short, all the things that influence how people live. Herbst deftly pins down contours of public opinion in new ways and explores what endures and what doesn’t in the extraordinarily troubled, polarized, and hyper-mediated present. Before we can ask the most important questions about public opinion in American democracy today, we must reckon yet again with the politics and culture of the 1930s.

The Rational Public
The Rational Public

Author: Benjamin I. Page

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-05-27

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 0226644804

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This monumental study is a comprehensive critical survey of the policy preferences of the American public, and will be the definitive work on American public opinion for some time to come. Drawing on an enormous body of public opinion data, Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro provide the richest available portrait of the political views of Americans, from the 1930's to 1990. They not only cover all types of domestic and foreign policy issues, but also consider how opinions vary by age, gender, race, region, and the like. The authors unequivocally demonstrate that, notwithstanding fluctuations in the opinions of individuals, collective public opinion is remarkably coherent: it reflects a stable system of values shared by the majority of Americans and it responds sensitively to new events, arguments, and information reported in the mass media. While documenting some alarming case of manipulation, Page and Shapiro solidly establish the soundness and value of collective political opinion. The Rational Public provides a wealth of information about what we as a nation have wanted from government, how we have changed our minds over the years, and why. For anyone interested in the short- and long-term trends in Americans' policy preferences, or eager to learn what Americans have thought about issues ranging from racial equality to the MX missile, welfare to abortion, this book offers by far the most sophisticated and detailed treatment available.

Statehouse Democracy
Statehouse Democracy

Author: Robert S. Erikson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780521424059

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The authors demonstrate that state policies are highly responsive to public opinion through the analysis of state policies from the 1930s to the present.

American Public Opinion and the Modern Supreme Court, 1930-2020
American Public Opinion and the Modern Supreme Court, 1930-2020

Author: Thomas R. Marshall

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-04-29

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1793623317

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The United States Supreme Court is commonly thought to be an institution far removed from American public opinion. Yet nearly two-thirds of modern Supreme Court decisions reflect popular attitudes. Comparing over 500 Supreme Court decisions with timely nationwide poll questions since the mid-1930s, Thomas R. Marshall shows that most Supreme Court decisions agree with poll majorities or pluralities across time and across issues and often represent Americans’ views to the same degree as federal policymakers. This book looks beyond the litigants, economic interests, social movements, organized interest groups, or units of governments typically involved and instead examines how well the Court or the justices represent Americans’ views. Using nationwide public opinion, broken down by key subgroups, race, gender, education, and party affiliation, better describes exactly whom Supreme Court decisions and the justices’ individual votes best represent. His book will be of interest to scholars in political science, legal studies, history, and sociology.

The American 1930s
The American 1930s

Author: Peter Conn

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-02-19

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0521516404

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A wholly new perspective on the literature and art of the 1930s by a leading scholar of the period.

Numbered Voices
Numbered Voices

Author: Susan Herbst

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1995-08-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780226327433

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Quantifying the American mood through opinion polls appears to be an unbiased means for finding out what people want. But in Numbered Voices, Susan Herbst demonstrates that the way public opinion is measured affects the use that voters, legislators, and journalists make of it. Exploring the history of public opinion in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, Herbst shows how numbers served both instrumental and symbolic functions, not only conveying neutral information but creating a basis authority. Addressing how the quantification of public opinion has affected contemporary politics and the democratic process, Herbst asks difficult but fundamental questions about the workings of American politics. "An original and thought-provoking analysis of why we have polls, what they accomplish, and how they affect the current political scene. Herbst's scholarship is impeccable, her writing is clear and crisp, and her findings are original. . . . Every reader will benefit by carefully weighing the issues she raises and the conclusions she draws."—Doris A. Graber, Political Science Quarterly "An intelligent, theoretically rich, and historically broad account of public opinion over several millennia. . . . The historical accounts are interesting and her interpretations are thought-provoking."—Paul Brace, Journal of American History

Advertising on Trial
Advertising on Trial

Author: Inger L. Stole

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0252092589

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In the 1930s, the United States almost regulated advertising to a degree that seems unthinkable today. Activists viewed modern advertising as propaganda that undermined the ability of consumers to live in a healthy civic environment. Organized consumer movements fought the emerging ad business and its practices with fierce political opposition. Inger L. Stole examines how consumer activists sought to limit corporate influence by rallying popular support to moderate and change advertising. Stole weaves the story through the extensive use of primary sources, including archival research done with consumer and trade group records, as well as trade journals and engagement with the existing literature. Her account of the struggle also demonstrates how public relations developed in order to justify laissez-faire corporate advertising in light of a growing consumer rights movement, and how the failure to rein in advertising was significant not just for civic life in the 1930s but for our era as well.

American Government 3e
American Government 3e

Author: Glen Krutz

Publisher:

Published: 2023-05-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781738998470

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Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.