7/30/2019 A Theory of Public Opinion (Transaction/Rutgers,
2013).
1/1
A Theory of Public Opinion
Francis Graham Wilson
Edited with a new introduction by H. Lee Cheek, Jr.
With extraordinary understanding, this book traces the emergence
of the ideas
and institutions that evolved to give people mastery over their
own destiny
through the force of public opinion. The Greek belief in citizen
participation is
shown as the ground upon which the idea of public opinion began
and upon
which it grew. A fascinating description follows of the gradual
development of
the channels necessary before the upward flow of public opinion
to those governing became possible.For Wilson, public opinion is
always an orderly force, contributing to social and political
life.
Wilson appraises the influence of modern psychology, with its
techniques and ideas, and the slow and at
first scarcely recognized appearance of the methodologies that
would enable people not only to measurethe opinions of others, but
to mold them as well. He examines the relation of the theory of
public opinion
to the intellectuals, the middle class, and the various
revolutionary and proletarian movements of the
modern era. He also considers the position of ordinary people,
and the circumstances in which the
individual may refuse to follow the opinions of the experts are
succinctly and movingly analyzed.
This book is a historical and philosophical evaluation of a
concept that has played a decisive part in
history and whose overwhelming force is today most peculiarly
underestimated. The author's penetrating
insight brings an understanding that is invaluable at a time
when public opinion, the very forcedeveloped to enable the ruled to
restrain their rulers, has become itself controllable and attempts
to
manipulate it are made by those who would impose their will upon
their fellow men
Francis Graham Wilson was an eminent professor of political
science who served as one of the central
figures in the revival of scholarship in American and Latin
American political thought during the middle
of the twentieth century. He taught at numerous universities,
including Stanford University, University
of Washington, University of Illinois, and Long Island
University. He is best known for establishing a
historical theory of public opinion as distinct from the
methodology. He is the author of numerousarticles and books on
public opinion including The American Political Mind, Order and
Legitimacy:
Political Thought in National Spain, andPolitical Philosophy and
Cultural Renewal.
H. Lee Cheek, Jr. is associate vice president for academic
affairs and professor of political science at
Athens State University. He is the author or editor of numerous
works including Order and Legitimacy,
Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal, Calhoun and Popular
Rule, and Confronting Modernity.
Political Science
Survey Research
Public Opinion
APRIL 2011
Rights: World
ISBN 978-1-4128-1501-7
Paper. 340 pp.
