Public Opinion: Measuring The American Mind

Public Opinion: Measuring the American Mind

Barbara Bardes, co-author of the best selling AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS TODAY, and Robert Oldendick, Director of the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of South Carolina, provide students with the tools to explore the formation, variation, and impact of public opinion. Part Two of PUBLIC OPINION: MEASURING THE AMERICAN MIND is devoted to the issues and methods of polling, including polling in political campaigns and the goals of organizations that commission and conduct polls. With a discussion of the history of public opinion, as well as an analysis of the public's views on a range of current issues, this text combines a comprehensive study of the field with real-world relevance. The text is designed for use in Public Opinion courses but would be an excellent supplemental or core text in any Communications, Sociology, or Political Psychology course.About the AuthorBarbara A. Bardes is a professor of political science and Dean of Raymond Walters College at the University of Cincinnati. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts degree from Kent State University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. She held a faculty position at Loyola University in Chicago for many years before returning to Cincinnati, her home town, as a college administrator. Bardes has written articles on public opinion and foreign policy, and on women and politics. She has authored THINKING ABOUT PUBLIC POLICY AND DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE: WOMEN AND POLITICAL POWER IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS, and co-authored PUBLIC OPINION: MEASURING THE AMERICAN MIND.