The Great Debates: Background, Perspective, Effects

THE GREAT DEBATES: BACKGROUND, PERSPECTIVE, EFFECTS, Sidney Kraus, hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, first edition per publisher’s custom of indicating only later editions, illustrated with a few photographs, 1962. BOOK CONDITION: very good. The text block is in fine condition with no tears, marks, or dog ears. There is no bookplate, but the signature of the previous owner (Creekmore Fath, advisor to FDR and subsequent Democratic Presidents) is written on the first pastedown. Not a remainder or library book. The black cloth boards are in good condition (fingerprint smudges, lightly bumped spine top). The dust jacket is in good condition (edge chipping). 9 x 6, 439 pages, 28 ounces XX [From the dust jacket flaps] "As members of a new political generation, Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy have used a new means of communication to pioneer a new type of political debate. Surely, they have set a new precedent. Perhaps they have established a new tradition.” (QUINCY HOWE, moderator, in conclusion of the fourth debate, October 21, 1960). XX “By conservative estimate 55 per cent of the adult population watched or listened to all the Kennedy-Nixon television debates of 1960, 80 per cent saw or heard at least one. In this volume thirty experts in communications, political analysis, and opinion research address themselves to the questions raised by this unprecedented event. Following Harold D. Lasswell's introduction, which sets the stage by surveying the challenges which face the student of communications and political behavior as a result of the debates, the articles explore the background, circumstances, and effects of the debates in great detail. The history of broadcasting in presidential campaigns since 1924 is related by Samuel L. Becker and Elmer W. Lower; the views of the networks are represented in selections by Robert W. Sarnoff and Frank Stanton; a detailed production diary is supplied by Herbert A. Seltz and Richard D. Yoakam; Douglass Cater speaks for the questioning newsmen. "Were they great?" is the question posed by Charles A. Siepmann; while J. Jeffery Auer entitles his probe "The Counterfeit Debates." Political analyst Samuel Lubell examines "Personalities vs. Issues;" and Gilbert Seldes gives thought to "The Future of National Debates." The results of thirty-one known research studies of voters’ reaction to the debates are then reported on and analyzed by Elihu Katz and Jacob J. Feldman. Several of these studies are included in full: on campaign interest and media use by Reuben Mehling, Sidney Kraus, and Richard D. Yoakam; on viewing, conversation, and voting intentions by Paul J. Deutschmann; on certain specific effects of the debates by Richard F. Carter; on candidate images by Percy H. Tannenbaum, Bradley S. Greenberg, and Fred R. Silverman….”. …