surveys, citizens, and the making of a mass public /
First Statement of Responsibility
Sarah E. Igo.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Cambridge, Mass. :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Harvard University Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2007.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
1 online resource (398 pages) :
Other Physical Details
illustrations, map
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-378) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
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.
0
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
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.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS NOTE (ELECTRONIC RESOURCES)
Text of Note
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.
ACQUISITION INFORMATION NOTE
Source for Acquisition/Subscription Address
JSTOR
Stock Number
22573/ctt1347swr
OTHER EDITION IN ANOTHER MEDIUM
Title
Averaged American.
International Standard Book Number
9780674023215
CORPORATE BODY NAME USED AS SUBJECT
University of South Alabama
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
National characteristics, American.
Social surveys-- United States-- History-- 20th century.
Américains.
Enquêtes sociales-- États-Unis-- Histoire-- 20e siècle.