I picked up this book to understand public opinion more, especially for teaching my AP Government and Politics course. It was helpful in seeing trends and changes over time. This book is a bit dense, so the casual reader beware.

Sadly, Prof. Ellis is way off base as was Walter Lippman, the lynchpin of her book. Dr. Ellis admits that Lippman was a Platonist (an authoritarian or perhaps a closet fascist) but she fails to note that Lippman was a die-hard elitist, a pompous highbrow snob, and worst of all an avowed "leveler". The only reason to read this book is to review the many quotations that Ellis included from Lippman's books and columns. Regrettably, Lippman could not have read James Surowiecki's excellent book, "The Wisdom of Crowds" which was written in 2005 but Prof. Ellis would do herself a great service if she read Surowiecki's seminal tome. What Lippman, Ellis, and the rest of the elitist Left do not understand is individualism beats authoritarianism every time. Lippman was certain that he knew better how to format public policy than the average Joe and he was correct BUT what the collectivist Left misses every time is that 100 million average Joes beat the hell out of 10,000 experts all the time!