"[Frank] Newport, the Editor-in-Chief of Gallup, is out to make the case for the importance of polling in a democracy, and he's obviously concerned that polls are losing credibility. That's because -- as Eugene Volokh regularly notes -- polls that are unscientific, or that are misrepresented by media coverage, are so common. Newport's most interesting point is that polls can uncover collective wisdom ... that other mechanisms miss."
-- instapundit.com (June 28, 2004)
"Those who question (the value of polls) may find this plainspoken defense by the editor-in-chief of The Gallup Poll illuminating. Newport is an effective communicator who clarifies the process that distills from the opinions of a mere 1,000 interviewees an accurate reflection of the opinions of tens of millions of Americans."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Poll-driven is one of our stronger political epithets today, but Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, argues that the term should instead be considered a laurel. "Representatives," he says, "must and should pay more, rather than less, attention to the collective wisdom of the people, and polling provides them with the means to do so." Taking on critics like columnist Arianna Huffington and political scientist James Fishkin, Newport offers an accessible introduction to the methods of scientific public-opinion polling and makes a strong argument for the value of polls. Early in the age of polling, Newport's predecessor, George Gallup, said many of the same things in The Pulse of Democracy (1940), so this book, a historical echo, will be interesting to research libraries while useful to undergraduate collections and public libraries alike."
-- Robert Nardini, Chichester, NH
Copyright (c) 2004 Reed Business Information
Based on the largest and most in-depth study of its kind, this book presents the remarkable findings of the Gallup Poll of the Muslim World.