Inside America

Library Journal

Harris, the well-known pollster, offers a wide-ranging examination of contemporary U.S. social, political, and economic attitudes. The book, which consists of some 50 short chapters with such snappy headings as ``Weight: A Nation Out of Shape'' and ``Yuppies: Lately Spawned and Now Scorned,'' is loaded with statistical data derived (as might be expected) from opinion surveys, e.g., ``10% of all adults confess that they first learned about sex from a sexual partner.'' While some of this information is arresting and occasionally illuminating, the overall effect is predictable and ephemeral. Recent similar titles are Oxford Analytica's America in Perspective (LJ 10/15/86) and Bryant Robey's The American People ( LJ 7/85). Kenneth F. Kister, Pinellas Park P.L., Fla.