عنوان

The averaged American :

0674027426

0674038940

9780674027428

9780674038943

0674023218

0674027426

9780674023215

9780674027428

b709853

The averaged American :

[Book]

surveys, citizens, and the making of a mass public /

Sarah E. Igo.

Cambridge, Mass. :

Harvard University Press,

2007.

1 online resource (398 pages) :

illustrations, map

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-378) and index.

List of illustrations -- Introduction: America in aggregate -- 1: Canvassing a "typical" community -- 2: Middletown becomes everytown -- 3: Polling the average populace -- 4: Majority talks back -- 5: Surveying normal selves -- 6: Private lives of the public -- Epilogue: Statistical citizens -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

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From the Publisher: Americans today "know" that a majority of the population supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. Through statistics like these, we feel that we understand our fellow citizens. But remarkably, such data-now woven into our social fabric-became common currency only in the last century. Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public. Igo argues that modern surveys, from the Middletown studies to the Gallup Poll and the Kinsey Reports, projected new visions of the nation: authoritative accounts of majorities and minorities, the mainstream and the marginal. They also infiltrated the lives of those who opened their doors to pollsters, or measured their habits and beliefs against statistics culled from strangers. Survey data underwrote categories as abstract as "the average American" and as intimate as the sexual self. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans' sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation. Tracing how ordinary people argued about and adapted to a public awash in aggregate data, she reveals how survey techniques and findings became the vocabulary of mass society-and essential to understanding who we, as modern Americans, think we are.

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

JSTOR

22573/ctt1347swr

Averaged American.

9780674023215

University of South Alabama

National characteristics, American.

Social surveys-- United States-- History-- 20th century.

Américains.

Enquêtes sociales-- États-Unis-- Histoire-- 20e siècle.

Burgerschap.

Demoskopie

HISTORY-- United States-- 20th Century.

Massengesellschaft

National characteristics, American.

Nationalkaraktär-- Förenta staterna.

Öffentliche Meinung

Opinieonderzoek.

Publieke opinie.

Social conditions

SOCIAL SCIENCE-- Anthropology-- General.

SOCIAL SCIENCE-- Regional Studies.

Social surveys.

Soziologie

Survey-onderzoek.

United States, Social conditions, 20th century.

États-Unis, Conditions sociales, 20e siècle.

Förenta staterna, sociala förhållanden, 1900-talet.

United States.

USA.

Verenigde Staten.

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6

7

7

7

7

HIS036060

SOC-- 002000

SOC-- 053000

SOC009000

SOC022000

Igo, Sarah E.,1969-

20201208003934.0

pn

[Book]

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