What Americans really think

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Sussman, former public-opinion pollster for the Washington Post, here examines how polls in the last half-century have measured American attitudes on politics, religion, sex, race relations, foreign policy and economics, and how their findings have diminished representative government by inducing politicians to follow rather than lead. Polls can have a snowball effect, the author shows: a bon mot or blooper in a presidential-election debate, for example, can boost or drop a candidate's poll-rating a point or two, then add a few more positive or negative points after the media have intensified public awareness of what happened. The extensive tables and charts, and the author's interpretations of them help readers to track the ever-changing national ideology. Sussman's most arresting conclusion is that many voters will forego liberal values expressed in a poll in order to support a candidate considered most likely to improve or safeguard their own economic situation. (June)

Library Journal

Sussman, a political analyst and pollster for the Washington Post , argues that ``trust in government has remained very low.'' He discusses specific grievances of Americans (unfair income tax and criminal justice systems, the economy, foreign policy blunders), and attempts to manipulate public opinion by recent presidents. This book is part history of public opinion polling; part inside account of how polls are conducted by the Post ; and part analysis of current public opinion. Sussman devotes a lengthy section to attitudes on race relations, news media, Israel, tax policies, social security, nuclear power, and abortion. While not as statistically encompassing as the Times-Mirror study by Norman Ornstein et al., The People, the Press, and Politics ( LJ 4/1/88), this book provides a helpful discussion of the role of public opinion surveys in the U.S. political process. Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.