I would normally never have read a book like this, not only because I would never have cared to seek it out, but also because it seemed to be overly scholarly for leisure reading. However, when your flight is delayed by six hours and you have finished the two books you packed with you, you start to get desperate. The teal covered book that had been sitting in the seat across from me for about two hours began to look really interesting. Howard Schuman, in Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys, gives a coherent and easy to understand break down of what polls and surveys actually mean, how they are most useful and most importantly how they are created. Schuman highlights the use of surveys in a quote on page 29: “…although attitudes are sometimes thought of as more fragile to measure than facts, certain attitudes, such those of two presidential candidates in the days just prior to an election, may be much less ambiguous than some ‘hard facts.’” Overall the book was an interesting read because it exposed me to the world of surveys I had never seen before.
This season of “Bowdoin Reads” is shaping up to be the best yet.
I nearly died laughing reading this review…I guess it shows you can find the good in anything. I’ve truthfully never heard of this book, let alone read it, but you’ve made me curious…