Finding Out: Personal Adventures in Social Research--Discovering What People Think, Say and Do [Hardcover]

Leo Bogart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2002

For more than fifty years Leo Bogart has been a name of distinction in the little-understood field of social research. He has spent a long professional career investigating the public's opinions, preferences, and behavior, working in an improbable medley of places and problems. Some of his remarkable studies were done out of personal curiosity (the American reaction to the Holocaust), others on assignment (the public response to the TV quiz scandals). Together they fall under two themes: the clash of cultures and the effects of mass communications. To Finding Out, Mr. Bogart brings not only analytical skills but a storyteller's art. His memoir is interlarded with excerpts from some of his most interesting reports--for Macy's, Standard Oil, Revlon, McCann--Erickson, the Defense Department; but some readers will be more entertained by his accounts of the rich and famous with whom he shared a conference table--Charles Revson, Paul Lazarsfeld, Elmo Roper, Marion Harper, Leo Lowenthal, Emerson Foote, and many others. He has been over the years a prescient observer of the influence of the mass media on American habits, and a sharp analyzer of the social dynamics of American culture in its myriad manifestations. Finding Out reflects his astute appraisal of the mass society that America has become in the last half-century.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With more than 50 years of experience as an applied sociologist, Bogart provides valuable insights into a profession that is little understood though its influence extends from telephone polls to marketing research. Bogart recalls some of his earlier work as a researcher and how the profession has evolved, including internal clashes among academic scholars and commercial researchers. He reviews some of his earlier research, methodology, and the social context at the time and takes a new look from a current perspective on topics including immigration, Jewish views on the Holocaust and Israel, the influence of mass media, and changing racial attitudes. Bogart provides sharp analysis of differences in methods and how opinions have changed, as well as how opinions are shaped by the timing and even the perspective of the researcher. Bogart's personal curiosity about people's thoughts and feelings gives this book a depth of perspective not typically found in dry research reports as he examines work he has done for a variety of clients, including Macy's, Standard Oil, Revlon, and the U.S. Defense Department. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Highly readable...truly fascinating in its details. (Gladys and Kurt Lang )

A book that tells us, in a literate and charming manner, a great deal about what the world is like. (Barry Sussman )

He gives us his unique insider story--poignant, critical, revealing, intimate--of this international enterprise in which he has been a powerful and moral leader. (Orville Gilbert Brim )

One of the very best books ever written about how to understand public opinion polls, by a master of the art. (Etzioni, Amitai )

Clear-headed, deep-seeing and plain-spoken, Leo Bogart is surely the Grand Master of social research.... A vigorous critical participant-observer. (Merton, Robert K. )

Bogart provides valuable insights into a profession that is little understood. (Booklist )

A delightful book, filled with colorful characters quickly but deftly limned.... His details are frequently funny and charming. (Reason )

Lively, plain prose…its dynamic, like Bogart's professional life, is both strong and vibrant. The book makes…exceptional contributions to American sociology. (Purdue University Journal )

Provides abundant, pithy, and often witty sketches.... Of high importance to the work of historians of the social sciences. (Robert A. Dentler Contemporary Sociology )

Finding Out contributes to the history of the profession of public opinion research, particularly its commercial side. (Murray Edelman Cbs News )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (November 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566634822
• ISBN-13: 978-1566634823
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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