Dr. Charles Murray, a political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, came to Middlebury last Thursday to discuss his book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. … But when Murray was introduced, the student crowd erupted in a barrage of chants and sign-waving designed to […] Read more »
The Fix We’re In
How do people think and talk about opportunity and inequality in the United States? We hear about these themes frequently these days, from economists, from the philanthropic community, from political pundits and among the slogans and sound bites of recent political campaigns. But what do “regular” Americans think, and what […] Read more »
Americans’ Satisfaction Steady or Up, Except on Race Matters
Americans’ satisfaction with both race relations and the situation for blacks and other racial minorities in the U.S. edged down from last year, the only two areas of the 28 Gallup measured to decline significantly over this period. … The biggest positive changes over the past year were increases in […] Read more »
US Satisfaction: Quality of Life First, Race Relations Last
As the nation prepares to transition to Donald Trump’s administration, solid majorities of Americans are satisfied with the U.S. quality of life, the opportunity to get ahead by working hard and the nation’s military strength. They are much less satisfied with the state of race relations, the nation’s efforts to […] Read more »
Rumors of the Demise of Books Greatly Exaggerated
Despite the abundance of digital diversions vying for their time and attention, most Americans are still reading books. In fact, they are consuming books at nearly the same rate that they were when Gallup last asked this question in 2002 — before smartphones, Facebook or Twitter became ubiquitous. CONT. Art […] Read more »
Little Confidence in Major American Institutions
Few Americans have much confidence in many key U.S. institutions like local and federal government, big business, agencies like the FBI and CIA and the national news media, according to results from a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal. The exceptions: A combined 73 percent of American adults have either a […] Read more »