Quantifying the American mood through opinion polls appears to be an unbiased means for finding out what people
want. But in Numbered Voices, Susan Herbst demonstrates that the way public opinion is measured affects
the use that voters, legislators, and journalists make of it.
Exploring the history of public opinion in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present
day, Herbst shows how numbers served both instrumental and symbolic functions, not only conveying neutral information
but creating a basis authority. Addressing how the quantification of public opinion has affected contemporary politics
and the democratic process, Herbst asks difficult but fundamental questions about the workings of American politics.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1: Quantification and Rationality
2: Numbers and Symbolic Politics
3: Techniques of Opinion Expression and Measurement
4: Partisan Politics and the Symbolic Use of Straw Polls, 1856-1936
5: Congressmen, Journalists, and Opinion Assessment, 1930-1950
6: Contemporary Public Opinion Research
7: Crowd Estimation and Public Opinion
8: Opinion Quantification and Democracy
