In Public Opinion, what is widely considered the most influential book ever written by Walter Lippmann, the late journalist and social critic provides a fundamental treatise on the nature of human information and communication.Public Opinion is Walter Lippmann's is of enduring significance for communications scholars, historians, sociologists, and political scientists.
Walter Lippmann is arguably the most influential journalist in American history
Begun in 1938 and completed only in 1955, The Public Philosophy offers as much a glimpse into the private philosophy of America's premier journalist of the twentieth century as it does a public philosophy
American Inquisitors is one of the small gems among Walter Lippmann's larger books
Arguing that there is a necessary connection between liberty and truth, this book excoriates the press, claiming that it exists primarily for its own purposes and agendas and only incidentally to promote the honest interplay of facts and ideas.
Lippmann argues "hopefully and wistfully" for rational inquiry into those conditions by which a good society may be reconstituted in order to halt the descent into violence and tyranny. He thinks there are world citizens who believe in the tenets of "the public philosophy", once basic to our democracy, and now almost forgotten. For action to this end there must be belief. And to recover this belief he explores the decline of the West- and the public philosophy. He has sensed the sickness of democracy, and the steps by which it was acquired, the extent to which it has threatened the public interest. In this process he studies the problem of the executive dominated by the legislative- concern of our founders, and of critics then and now. In the derangement of the primary functions of government he sees the democratic disaster of our century, an acceptance of the Jacobin doctrine of enfranchisement by displacement of the governing class. He feels that the democracies are ceasing to receive the traditions of civility, and are thereby cut off from a public philosophy. But he feels it still survives as a positive doctrine, that there still are obligations binding on all men:- the theory of property, freedom of speech, etc. Such a restoration as he envisions aims to resist and regulate desires and opinions - an unpopular program, but necessary to survival of democracy. He challenges our teachers to return to the great tradition. Not an easy book to read and digest. Perhaps Lippmann's name will spark the interest. (Kirkus Reviews)
This volume addresses cultural and political practices not only from outside the European and American spheres, but also over long periods of time in which the internal dynamics of other civilizations become visible. It uses a broad range of empirical materials.
In an era disgusted with politicians and the various instruments of "direct democracy," Walter Lippmann's The Phantom Public remains as relevant as ever
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