John Mueller: Bibliography
Terror, Security, and Money (2011) 
Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security, John Mueller & Mark G. Stewart. New York & London: Oxford University Press.
Oxford University Press:
In seeking to evaluate the efficacy of post–9/11 homeland security expenses – which have risen by more than a trillion dollars, not including war costs – the common query has been, ‘Are we safer?’ This, however, is the wrong question. Of course we are ‘safer’ – the posting of a single security guard at one building’s entrance enhances safety. The correct question is, ‘Are any gains in security worth the funds expended?
In this engaging, readable book, John Mueller and Mark Stewart apply risk and cost-benefit evaluation techniques to answer this very question. This analytical approach has been used throughout the world for decades by regulators, academics, and businesses – but, as a recent National Academy of Science study suggests, it has never been capably applied by the people administering homeland security funds. Given the limited risk terrorism presents, expenses meant to lower it have for the most part simply not been worth it. For example, to be considered cost-effective, increased American homeland security expenditures would have had each year to have foiled up to 1,667 attacks roughly like the one intended on Times Square in 2010 – more than four a day. Cataloging the mistakes that the US has made–and continues to make – in managing homeland security programs, Terror, Security, and Money has the potential to redirect our efforts toward a more productive and far more cost-effective course.
James Fallows, The Atlantic:
Our political and media systems often seem paralyzed or even deranged by the prospect of terrorism. Very few people can talk rationally about the threat, the possible defenses, and what we gain and lose through increased security measures. John Mueller and Mark Stewart are notable exceptions. If you wonder whether airport security really makes sense, or how much is ‘enough’ in protecting against attacks, consider the calm and convincing case they lay out in this book.
Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature:
Just when you thought that nothing more could be said about the war on terror, John Mueller and Mark Stewart offer a brilliant new analysis and call to action, filled with insight, intelligence, and sharp writing. It’s one of the rare books for which one can say that every politician and informed citizen should read it.
Bruce Schneier:
Terror, Security, and Money is enlightening, hard-hitting, and packed with common sense. Mueller and Stewart’s evenhanded analysis of homeland security’s costs and benefits is essential reading for anyone concerned whether our massively expensive security regime is worth the price.
War and Ideas (2011) 
War and Ideas: Selected Essays, John Mueller. New York: Routledge.
Routledge:
This book collects the key essays, together with updating notes and commentary, of Professor John Mueller on war and the role of ideas and opinions.
Mueller has maintained that war (and peace) are, in essence, merely ideas, and that war has waned as the notion that ‘peace’ is a decidedly good idea has gained currency. The first part of the book extends this argument, noting that as ideas have spread, war is losing out not only in the developed world, but now in the developing one, and that even civil war is in marked decline. It also assesses and critiques theories arguing that this phenomenon is caused by the rising acceptance of democracy and/or capitalism.
The second part argues that the Cold War was at base a clash of ideas that were seen to be threatening, not of arms balances, domestic systems, geography, or international structure. It also maintains that there has been a considerable tendency to exaggerate security threats—currently, in particular, the one presented by international terrorism—and to see them in excessively military terms.
The third section deals with the role public opinion plays in foreign policy, and argues that many earlier conclusions about opinion during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, including especially ones concerning the importance of casualties in determining popular support for war, apply to more recent military ventures in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It also assesses the difficulties leaders and idea entrepreneurs often encounter when they try to manage or manipulate public opinion.
This book will be of much interest to students of international relations, security studies, foreign policy and international history.
Robert Jervis, Columbia University:
Over the years many of the most important ideas about the role of ideas have come from the pen of John Mueller. Now he has drawn them together in a most valuable collection, and those who remain unpersuaded will fruitfully be provoked.
Harvey Starr, University of South Carolina:
A pioneer in the work on public opinion and war, Mueller has staked out intellectual leadership in thinking about the “obsolescence” of war. An excellent writer, Mueller’s pieces very clearly and effectively convey his arguments and conclusions. This book will be a valuable resource for instructors and students alike in courses ranging from general introductory IR, to courses on war, globalization or international law.
John A. Vasquez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
War and Ideas is a set of provocative theoretical essays and empirical analyses by one of the leading and most original thinkers in international relations inquiry. It is a book that will provoke debate and challenge conventional thinking; in doing so, it will advance our understanding of some of the most important issues of our time. Essential reading for scholars, journalists, and students.
Atomic Obsession (2009) 
Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda, John Mueller. London: Oxford University Press.
Oxford University Press:
Ever since the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the prospect of nuclear annihilation has haunted the modern world. But as John Mueller reveals in this eye-opening, compellingly argued, and very reassuring book, our obsession with nuclear weapons is unsupported by history, scientific fact, or logic.
Examining the entire atomic era, Mueller boldly contends that nuclear weapons have had little impact on history. Although they have inspired overwrought policies and distorted spending priorities, for the most part they have proved to be militarily useless, and a key reason so few countries have taken them up is that they are a spectacular waste of money and scientific talent. Equally important, Atomic Obsession reveals why anxieties about terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons are essentially baseless: a host of practical and organizational difficulties make their likelihood of success almost vanishingly small.
Mueller, one of America’s most distinguished yet provocative international relations scholars, goes even further, maintaining that our efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons have produced more suffering and violence than the bombs themselves, and that proliferation of the weapons, while not necessarily desirable, is unlikely to be a major danger or to accelerate.
Stephen M. Walt, ForeignPolicy.com:
The book will certainly make you think. Added bonus: It’s immensely fun to read.
Arms Control Today:
Meticulously researched and punctuated with a dry wit. Mueller deserves praise for having the guts to shout that the atomic emperor has no clothes.
Science Magazine:
Mueller performs an important service in puncturing some of the inflated rhetoric about nuclear weapons…. An unusual and fruitful perspective on nuclear history.
Overblown (2006) 
Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, John Mueller. New York: Free Press.
Simon & Schuster:
Why have there been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11? It is ridiculously easy for a single person with a bomb-filled backpack, or a single explosives-laden automobile, to launch an attack. So why hasn’t it happened? The answer is surely not the Department of Homeland Security, which cannot stop terrorists from entering the country, legally or otherwise. It is surely not the Iraq war, which has stoked the hatred of Muslim extremists around the world and wasted many thousands of lives. Terrorist attacks have been regular events for many years – usually killing handfuls of people, occasionally more than that.
Is it possible that there is a simple explanation for the peaceful American homefront? Is it possible that there are no al-Qaeda terrorists here? Is it possible that the war on terror has been a radical overreaction to a rare event? Consider: 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants have been subjected to fingerprinting and registration, and more than 5,000 foreign nationals have been imprisoned – yet there has not been a single conviction for a terrorist crime in America. A handful of plots – some deadly, some intercepted – have plagued Europe and elsewhere, and even so, the death toll has been modest.
We have gone to war in two countries and killed tens of thousands of people. We have launched a massive domestic wiretapping program and created vast databases of information once considered private. Politicians and pundits have berated us about national security and patriotic duty, while encroaching our freedoms and sending thousands of young men off to die.
It is time to consider the hypothesis that dare not speak its name: we have wildly overreacted. Terrorism has been used by murderous groups for many decades, yet even including 9/11, the odds of an American being killed by international terrorism are microscopic. In general, international terrorism doesn’t do much damage when considered in almost any reasonable context.
The capacity of al-Qaeda or of any similar group to do damage in the United States pales in comparison to the capacity other dedicated enemies, particularly international Communism, have possessed in the past. Lashing out at the terrorist threat is frequently an exercise in self-flagellation because it is usually more expensive than the terrorist attack itself and because it gives the terrorists exactly what they are looking for. Much, probably most, of the money and effort expended on counterterrorism since 2001 (and before, for that matter) has been wasted.
The terrorism industry and its allies in the White House and Congress have preyed on our fears and caused enormous damage. It is time to rethink the entire enterprise and spend much smaller amounts on only those things that do matter: intelligence, law enforcement, and disruption of radical groups overseas. Above all, it is time to stop playing into the terrorists’ hands, by fear-mongering and helping spread terror itself.
The Remnants of War (2004) 
The Remnants of War, John Mueller. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
- Paperback edition with new preface, 2007
- Winner of the Lepgold Book Prize, Mortara Center for International Studies (Georgetown University), 2005
From the introduction:
War … is merely an idea, an institution, like dueling or slavery, that has been grafted onto human existence. It is not a trick of fate, a thunderbolt from hell, a natural calamity, or a desperate plot contrivance dreamed up by some sadistic puppeteer on high. And it seems to me that the institution is in pronounced decline, abandoned as attitudes toward it have changed, roughly following the pattern by which the ancient and formidable institution of slavery became discredited and then mostly obsolete.
Cornell University Press:
War is one of the great themes of human history and now, John Mueller believes, it is clearly declining. Developed nations have generally abandoned it as a way for conducting their relations with other countries, and most current warfare (though not all) is opportunistic predation waged by packs—often remarkably small ones—of criminals and bullies. Thus, argues Mueller, war has been substantially reduced to its remnants—or dregs—and thugs are the residual combatants.
Mueller is sensitive to the policy implications of this view. When developed states commit disciplined troops to peacekeeping, the result is usually a rapid cessation of murderous disorder. The Remnants of War thus reinvigorates our sense of the moral responsibility bound up in peacekeeping. In Mueller’s view, capable domestic policing and military forces can also be effective in reestablishing civic order, and the building of competent governments is key to eliminating most of what remains of warfare.
Library Journal:
Well researched and well organized, with clear, original arguments … this thought-provoking piece will have tremendous policy implications.
Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery (1999) 
Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery, John Mueller. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Princeton University Press:
Democracy is overrated. Capitalism, on the other hand, doesn’t get enough credit. In this provocative and engaging book, John Mueller argues that these mismatches between image and reality create significant political and economic problems–inspiring instability, inefficiency, and widespread cynicism. We would be far better off, he writes, if we recognized that neither system is ideal or disastrous and accepted instead the humdrum truth that both are “pretty good.” And, to Mueller, that means good enough. He declares that what is true of Garrison Keillor’s fictional store “Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery” is also true of democracy and capitalism: if you can’t get what you want there, “you can probably get along without it.”
Mueller begins by noting that capitalism is commonly thought to celebrate greed and to require discourtesy, deceit, and callousness. However, with examples that range from car dealerships and corporate boardrooms to the shop of an eighteenth-century silk merchant, Mueller shows that capitalism in fact tends to reward behavior that is honest, fair, civil, and compassionate. He argues that this gap between image and reality hampers economic development by encouraging people to behave dishonestly, unfairly, and discourteously to try to get ahead and to neglect the virtuous behavior that is an important source of efficiency and gain.
The problem with democracy’s image, by contrast, is that our expectations are too high. We are too often led by theorists, reformers, and romantics to believe that democracy should consist of egalitarianism and avid civic participation. In fact, democracy will always be chaotic, unequal, and marked by apathy. It offers reasonable freedom and security, but not political paradise. To idealize democracy, Mueller writes, is to undermine it, since the inevitable contrast with reality creates public cynicism and can hamper democracy’s growth and development.
Mueller presents these arguments with sophistication, wit, and erudition. He combines mastery of current political and economic literature with references to figures ranging from Plato to P. T. Barnum, from Immanuel Kant to Ronald Reagan, from Shakespeare to Frank Capra. Broad in scope and rich in detail, the book will provoke debate among economists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the problems (or non-problems) of modern democracy and capitalism.
Library Journal:
Many thought-provoking ideas are packed into this nuanced work, and Mueller’s case is strong and well-documented.
Publisher’s Weekly:
Mueller is an entertaining guide through economic and political history, using references to Shakespeare, Adam Smith, Hume, Mencken and many more writers to produce deft explanations of complex ideas.
Daniel J. Silver, The Weekly Standard:
Mueller’s provocative book deserves a wide audience… . Mueller writes sharp, brisk, and witty prose that is unfailingly lucid.
Sam Popkin, University of California, San-Diego:
John Mueller deftly paces us through the practical realities of democratic development, rescuing the very idea of democracy from the idea mongers who have oversold the links between democracy and prosperity and between democracy and virtue. Stepping nimbly through the historic and contemporary links among democracy, capitalism, and virtue, he makes an important contribution to a practical theory of democracy.
Quiet Cataclysm (1995) 
Quiet Cataclysm: Reflections on the Recent Transformation of World Politics
- Free 28 MB PDF version also available
The Educational Publisher:
Did you miss World War III?
Perhaps that is because it was astoundingly quiet.
Quiet Cataclysm examines how, in the last few years, the world has undergone the functional equivalent of World War III: A major empire has dismembered, important political boundaries in Europe were reorganized, and several nations were politically transformed. Yet, unlike its predecessors, this world war ended with scarcely a shot fired.
In this book, John Mueller analyzes how this remarkably peaceful change came about, how it affects our view of the past, and what it suggests about the future. In these pages, students will first realize how the world’s problems are frequently just the reflection of opposing ideas, and, as such, can be resolved without military conflict. Second, they will understand that military considerations are often irrelevant to central issues in international politics – that they are an indication of tension, not the cause. Lastly, students will see how big problems – because they are simply about ideas – can change as quickly as the latest trends.
Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War (1994) 
Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War, John Mueller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
University of Chicago Press:
The Persian Gulf crisis may well have been the most extensively polled episode in U.S. history as President Bush, his opponents, and even Saddam Hussein appealed to, and tried to influence, public opinion. As well documented as this phenomenon was, it remains largely unexplained. John Mueller provides an account of the complex relationship between American policy and public opinion during the Gulf crisis.
Mueller analyzes key issues: the actual shallowness of public support for war; the effect of public opinion on the media (rather than the other way around); the use and misuse of polls by policy makers; the American popular focus on Hussein’s ouster as a central purpose of the War; and the War’s short-lived impact on voting. Of particular interest is Mueller’s conclusion that Bush succeeded in leading the country to war by increasingly convincing the public that it was inevitable, rather than right or wise.
Throughout, Mueller, author of War, Presidents, and Public Opinion, an analysis of public opinion during the Korean and Vietnam wars, places this analysis of the Gulf crisis in a broad political and military context, making comparisons to wars in Panama, Vietnam, Korea, and the Falklands, as well as to World War II and even the War of 1812. The book also collects nearly 300 tables charting public opinion through the Gulf crisis, making Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War an essential reference for anyone interested in recent American politics, foreign policy, public opinion, and survey research.
Retreat from Doomsday (1989) 
Retreat from Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War, John Mueller. Columbus, Ohio: The Educational Publisher.
- new and updated 20th-anniversary high-quality paperback edition with a new introduction
- free 36 MB PDF version also available
The Educational Publisher:
Despite large stockpiles of deadly arms and some significant ideological differences, the developed world has been at peace for a longer continuous period than ever before. Arguing that this state of affairs is no accident, this book offers a detailed history of public policies and attitudes to war in modern times. The author sets out to show that, in spite of two 20th-century world wars, major war as a policy option among developed nations has gradually passed out of favour. He also contends that nuclear weapons have not had an important impact on this trend, neither making a crucial contribution to nor severely threatening post-war stability. Tracing the major Cold War crises – Korea, Cuba, Vietnam – the book concludes that, despite their revolutionary and expansionist ideology, former Soviet leaders never visualized major war as a sensible tactic. Only in the Third World does war remain endemic, and even here the author is cautiously optimistic that the developed world’s aversion to war might prove infectious.
Astaire Dancing (1985) 
Astaire Dancing: The Musical Films, John Mueller. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Digitally remastered, with over 1000 images now in color
The Educational Publisher:
Originally published in 1985 by Alfred A. Knopf, this book furnishes a detailed assessment of each of Astaire’s 31 musical films and analysis of each musical number. Its 2344 frame pictures have been recaptured in far higher quality than in the original, and those from color films are presented in color. There is also an extensive new preface by the author and a new Foreword by Chris Bamberger.
New York Times:
Indispensible.
Los Angeles Times:
Almost dances off the page.
Kirkus Reviews:
One of the most satisfying, rich and witty film books ever written. A book whose sheer (but thoughtful) delight can never fade.
St. Petersburg Times:
Mueller’s book trains the eye to see how Astaire puts it all together. It is likely to spark curiosity in anyone who has ever enjoyed watching Astaire dance, for it can only enhance that pleasure.
War, Presidents and Public Opinion (1973) 
War, Presidents and Public Opinion, John Mueller. Somerset, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.
- New high-quality paperback edition
- Selected in 1995 as one of the “Fifty Books That Significantly Shaped Public Opinion Research, 1946–1995” by the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
- Recipient in 2007 of the first Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research, presented by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
The Educational Publisher:
In War, Presidents and Public Opinion, some of the most deeply-held assumptions about what the American people think of their involvement in the Vietnamese war turn out to be unsupportable. For example, it is possible that the anti-war protest during Vietnam increased the popularity of the war (chapter 6), and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, contrary to many opinions, were disproportionately supported by the college-educated and by the young (chapter 5).
Using a comparative approach to the subject, Mueller shows how polling results are often misused in the press and by politicians. His rigorous analysis of public opinion poll data leads to new conclusions on attitudes toward war and the Presidents who led us into and out of these conflicts. And in turn, it should force the fair-minded to make a change in some previously-held convictions.
Highly readable well-organized, uncompromising – War, Presidents and Public Opinion may well become the basic reference work on public opinion and war.
Lee Sigelman, George Washington University:
This is a truly seminal book…brimming with ideas, all expressed in such a way that they are easily accessible to nontechnical readers and still sophisticated enough to engage the more technically inclined.
Howard Schuman, University of Michigan:
A useful and provocative book, and, I should add, one written with clarity and wit.
George Herring, University of Kentucky:
John Mueller’s classic study remains the best analysis of public response to the Korean and Vietnam wars. It effectively refutes old myths and deserves a wide reading.
James W. Davis, Jr., Harvard University:
Mueller combines caution with a sense of humor. The book is serious, but not ponderous, and can be recommended to anyone with a serious interest in American politics.
American Political Science Review:
Few books convey as effectively as this one the intellectual excitement and joy of discovery that can accompany scholarly inquiry…lucid and lively…a classic.
Edited by John Mueller
Terrorism since 9/11 (2011) 
Terrorism since 9/11: The American Cases, ed. John Mueller. The Educational Bookstore.
- Free 5.1 MB PDF version also available.
John Mueller:
This book springs from set of papers generated in an honors seminar I conducted in the autumn quarter of 2010 at Ohio State University. After a few weeks of examining the literature on terrorism, each student was assigned to do a case study of an American post–9/11 terrorism plot following as much as possible an outline I worked out during the quarter to frame their reports. After the course was over, many of the students voluntarily revised their papers taking into account (but not necessarily agreeing with) the comments I made on their original papers when I graded them.
These papers, both those revised and those unrevised, were then edited by me, particularly to enhance comparability across the cases, to reduce repetition, and to clean up at least some of the rough edges, and they were then sent to the students for their final approval. This book presents the results, and I have added a headnote for each case, some of which take a somewhat different tack, or interpret the evidence somewhat differently, than the detailed papers. Several case studies were added later by Lauren Brady and David Bernstein so that the present set includes a couple of terrorism cases that were initially omitted in the seminar as well as a few that have taken place since it was conducted.
The results should be taken, perhaps, to be something of a work in progress: we plan to update, revise, and correct, and then re-post from time to time. Accordingly, each case study and each headnote is dated and carries its own individual pagination.
———
Peace, Prosperity, and Politics (2001) 
Peace, Prosperity, and Politics, ed. John Mueller. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Westview Press:
As we enter a new century, world affairs have been transformed. The leading countries confront no compelling or immediate major threats of a military sort; they all see the world in essentially the same way; there has been an enormous expansion of international trade and economic interconnections; and rapid technological expansion has facilitated international interconnections that substantially skirt standard political arrangements. This makes possible a reallocation of national effort from security to material concerns and a reasonable prospect for an unparalleled era of prosperity and peace. But less benign forces also persist. Ethnic conflict continues to plague the world, and a new challenge to the international order could be launched by an emergent or resurgent state. Moreover, the positive prospects of the global economy are not yet available for all nations. In result, politics – political choice – remains important.
In this book, a group of political scientists, economists, and historians assess these important developments. They agree that important historical changes are occurring in international politics, but they differ in their perspectives and proffer different speculations about the new era and about the consequences of the emerging relationship between politics and economics. They also vary in the degree to which they are optimistic or pessimistic about the way things appear to be going.
The Strategy of Rhetoric (1996) 
The Strategy of Rhetoric: Campaigning for the American Constitution, William H. Riker; ed. John Mueller, Randall L. Calvert, & Rick K. Wilson. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Yale University Press:
This book, the last work of an eminent political scientist, is an innovative study of persuasion in a landmark political event: the 1787–88 campaign to ratify the United States Constitution. William Riker uses both historical and rational choice analysis to examine the rhetoric and strategic manipulations used in this campaign, and he points out patterns and principles that should be applicable to political campaigns in general.
Riker examines the campaign’s rhetoric and derives strategic principles that seem to guide campaigners. These principles explain, among other things, the frequent reliance on negative themes in campaigns. He also investigates what he calls “heresthetic” — how campaigners structured situations so that their preferred outcome was more likely to occur. He discusses several heresthetical maneuvers that made the Federalists’ narrow victory possible, such as their proposal of a constitution that was broader than most citizens would have preferred, and their design of the ratification process as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, so that they could prevent any ratifying state from altering it. Riker concludes by examining the relationship between rhetoric and heresthetic. He shows that both were necessary for the Federalist victory: rhetoric, to build support for Federalist positions, and heresthetic, to structure the choice process so that this level of support would be sufficient. His analysis yields a new understanding of the ratification campaign, and the tools and approaches he develops lead toward the further development of the science of political campaigns, of political rhetoric generally, and of the art and science of heresthetic.
Trends in Public Opinion (1989) 
Trends in Public Opinion: A Compendium of Survey Data, ed. John Mueller, Richard G. Niemi, and Tom W. Smith. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.
Choice:
Books that claim to describe American public opinion often generalize well beyond the data (e.g., into “grand malaise” theories), fail to provide comparisons over time that place findings in a meaningful context, and describe the contents of tables whose meaning is obvious. Niemi and Mueller (both University of Rochester) and Smith (National Opinion Research Center, Chicago) overcame these common problems to produce a splendid book. For each of their 15 chapters, they present a two-to-four page summary of attitudes over time in an opinion domain (e.g., role of women) and several pages of tables. For once, “less” really is “more” as the reader is free to pursue particular concerns among the tables and to ignore material of less personal interest. Although the tables have much rich information, the book is also worthwhile for readers who just want a quick written summary of what the American people think. The readable text does not repeat each table’s findings but cogently synthesizes the information. The authors write unusually well with scholarly standards of precision. Essential for college and university libraries.
Wilson Library Bulletin:
Trends in Public Opinion is a richer compendium in that it reports data from a broader time span, sometimes as far back as the 1930s and frequently over a forty-year period for a single issue. These issues are treated in fifteen chapters covering topics such as politics, crime, race relations, religion, and family… . The difference between this and any one of the annual Gallup Poll volumes is like the difference between a videotape and a still photo. Both have their uses and where one is available in a reference collection, the other ought to be also.
The Numbers News:
The terse title of this book does not convey the fascination of its contents. … It describes close to 50 years’ worth of public opinion. Much of the data are taken from the General Social Surveys, which have been conducted annually by the National Opinion Research Center since 1972. … the compendium offers insights into how Americans’ attitudes have changed, and in some cases, how they have not. For example, nearly half of Americans have said they are very satisfied with the work they do since the question was first asked in 1962. And the share of Americans who say they are very happy with their lives has remained at a solid third since at least 1957.
International Journal of Public Opinion Research:
The data reported in this book represent as much as fifty years worth of polling in the United States. The authors provide easy access to a large collection of survey questions that have been repeated in exactly or nearly exactly the same wording over an extended period of time. The centerpiece of the collection is the data from the General Social Survey (GSS), begun in 1972. Because the GSS adopted many previously used questions, the authors have extended the time series back much further in many cases. Furthermore, they have added time series data from 25 other sources, such as Gallup and the National Election Studies. In some cases, one can see that valuable survey questions have not been asked in some time. Perhaps this book will stimulate survey researchers to incorporate some of these questions in their future work.
Preview:
… In short, the volume provides one-stop shopping for polls amendable to trend analysis and will prove useful reading for social scientists, journalists, and the trendy “person in the street” alike. An excellent selection for most research, academic, and public libraries. … the convenience, scope, and attention to methodologic issues will make this volume useful to scholars, while the information itself will be attractive to others.
