Public Opinion

By: Walter Lippmann

Narrated by: John Clickman

Walter Lippmann's Public Opinion (1922) argues humans can't fully grasp complex issues. We rely on simplified ideas (stereotypes) and media portrayals ("pseudo-environments") to form opinions. He suggests experts, not the public, should guide society due to these limitations. Though controversial, it remains a crucial text in understanding public opinion, media influence, and the challenges of democracy.

Public Domain (P)2024 Timeless

Lippmann is an impressive social scientist.

I had heard of Lippmann as a journalist, but didn’t know what an excellent thinker and observer he was. I recommend the book highly. The one distraction is the poor ability of the narrator to read English. His voice and style of reading are fine, but he mispronounces words all over the place and sometimes makes substitutions that are initially very confusing (e.g., “casualty” for “causality” and “mortality” for “morality,” among many others). That such errors end up in the final version is more the fault of the editors than of the reader, but the result is still disconcerting. Still very much worth the listen though.

In my mind this is a slog

The narrator almost makes it unlistenable and makes me think that it was a hack AI job. If not, he was incredibly bad mispronouncing so many words it had to be some sort of audiobook record. It was so bad it almost made me stop the book and get my money back.