The Averaged American : Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public

From The Publisher: Americans Today Know That A Majority Of The Population Supports The Death Penalty, That Half Of All Marriages End In Divorce, And That Four Out Of Five Prefer A Particular Brand Of Toothpaste. Through Statistics Like These, We Feel That We Understand Our Fellow Citizens. But Remarkably, Such Data-now Woven Into Our Social Fabric-became Common Currency Only In The Last Century. Sarah Igo Tells The Story, For The First Time, Of How Opinion Polls, Man-in-the-street Interviews, Sex Surveys, Community Studies, And Consumer Research Transformed The United States Public. Igo Argues That Modern Surveys, From The Middletown Studies To The Gallup Poll And The Kinsey Reports, Projected New Visions Of The Nation: Authoritative Accounts Of Majorities And Minorities, The Mainstream And The Marginal. They Also Infiltrated The Lives Of Those Who Opened Their Doors To Pollsters, Or Measured Their Habits And Beliefs Against Statistics Culled From Strangers. Survey Data Underwrote Categories As Abstract As The Average American And As Intimate As The Sexual Self. With A Bold And Sophisticated Analysis, Igo Demonstrates The Power Of Scientific Surveys To Shape Americans' Sense Of Themselves As Individuals, Members Of Communities, And Citizens Of A Nation. Tracing How Ordinary People Argued About And Adapted To A Public Awash In Aggregate Data, She Reveals How Survey Techniques And Findings Became The Vocabulary Of Mass Society-and Essential To Understanding Who We, As Modern Americans, Think We Are. List Of Illustrations -- Introduction: America In Aggregate -- 1: Canvassing A Typical Community -- 2: Middletown Becomes Everytown -- 3: Polling The Average Populace -- 4: Majority Talks Back -- 5: Surveying Normal Selves -- 6: Private Lives Of The Public -- Epilogue: Statistical Citizens -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index. Sarah E. Igo. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 301-378) And Index.

Americans today “know” that a majority of the population supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. Through statistics like these, we feel that we understand our fellow citizens. But remarkably, such data—now woven into our social fabric—became common currency only in the last century. Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public.

Igo argues that modern surveys, from the Middletown studies to the Gallup Poll and the Kinsey Reports, projected new visions of the nation: authoritative accounts of majorities and minorities, the mainstream and the marginal. They also infiltrated the lives of those who opened their doors to pollsters, or measured their habits and beliefs against statistics culled from strangers. Survey data underwrote categories as abstract as “the average American” and as intimate as the sexual self.

With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation. Tracing how ordinary people argued about and adapted to a public awash in aggregate data, she reveals how survey techniques and findings became the vocabulary of mass society—and essential to understanding who we, as modern Americans, think we are.

Ken Dautrich - Political Science Quarterly

Social scientists, pollsters, and market researchers now regularly apply the techniques of scientific sampling and measurement to their work. Indeed, survey research has become the dominant methodology used to produce social science scholarship, public and political polling, and consumer research. Sarah Igo puts into historical context the way in which these now-commonplace research techniques have transformed American society over the past century. Igo’s historical examination of survey research in America provides a compelling argument that the statistical data generated and disseminated by surveys have given America a new way to view itself—as a “mass public.”

Americans today "know" that a majority of the population supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. Through statistics like these, we feel that we understand our fellow citizens. But remarkably, such data - now woven into our social fabric - became common currency only in the last century. Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public. Igo argues that modern surveys, from the Middletown studies to the Gallup Poll and the Kinsey Reports, projected new visions of the nation: authoritative accounts of majorities and minorities, the mainstream and the marginal. They also infiltrated the lives of those who opened their doors to pollsters, or measured their habits and beliefs against statistics culled from strangers. Survey data underwrote categories as abstract as "the average American" and as intimate as the sexual self. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans' sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation. Tracing how ordinary people argued about and adapted to a public awash in aggregate data, she reveals how survey techniques and findings became the vocabulary of mass society - and essential to understanding who we, as modern Americans, think we are Annotation Americans today know that a majority of the population supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. Through statistics like these, we feel that we understand our fellow citizens. But remarkably, such datanow woven into our social fabricbecame common currency only in the last century. Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public. Igo argues that modern surveys, from the Middletown studies to the Gallup Poll and the Kinsey Reports, projected new visions of the nation: authoritative accounts of majorities and minorities, the mainstream and the marginal. They also infiltrated the lives of those who opened their doors to pollsters, or measured their habits and beliefs against statistics culled from strangers. Survey data underwrote categories as abstract as the average American and as intimate as the sexual self. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans & sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation. Tracing how ordinary people argued about and adapted to a public awash in aggregate data, she reveals how survey techniques and findings became the vocabulary of mass societyand essential to understanding who we, as modern Americans, think we are supports the death penalty, that half of all marriages end in divorce, and that four out of five prefer a particular brand of toothpaste. But remarkably, such data--now woven into our social fabric--became common currency only in the last century. With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Sarah Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans' sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation.