Cambridge University Press Talking Politics

Those who analyze public opinion have long contended that the average citizen is incapable of recounting consistently even the most rudimentary facts about current politics; that the little the average person does know is taken strictly from what the media report, with no critical reflection; and that the consequence is a polity that is ill prepared for democratic governance. And yet social movements, comprised by and large of average citizens, have been a prominent feature of the American political scene throughout American history and have experienced a resurgence. William Gamson asks, how is it that so many people become active in movements if they are so uninterested and badly informed about issues? The conclusion he reaches in this book is a striking refutation of the common wisdom about the public's inability to reason about politics. Review "Talking Politics provides a kind of anatomy of political discourse, grounded in careful analysis of social-psychological processess. ... Gamson has pioneered new approaches to the study of popular consciousness, developing new conceptual and methodological tools for thinking about how groups actually formulate political understandings." Contemporary Sociology"...with a fine integration of findings from other studies, the book is a major contribution to our understanding of how people develop political consciousness." R. E. O'Connor, Choice Book Description William Gamson asks, how is it that so many people become active in movements if they are so uninterested and badly informed about issues?