The Phantom Public

LIPPMANN, Walter

Published by Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1925

About this Item

First Edition. Inscribed and Signed by Author. Inscribed "To an old friend from an old friend". This possibly refers to Dorothy Elmhist (nee Whitney) of Dartington Hall - see provenance. DESCRIPTION: Blue cloth with white paper title plate to spine. From private library at Dartington Hall. Author inscription and signature to ffep dated 1925 Language: English. Book Condition: Good: Light wear to corners, edges and spine ends. Private library number to lower spine end. Clean cloth with toned title plate to spine. Tightly bound with toned intact endpapers with strong hinges. Dartington Hall stamps to front paste down and publication page. Author inscription to ffep with additional date stamp. Faint spotting to endpaper gutter. Heavy foxing to prelims and all pages up to page 37. Lighter foxing primarily to page margins thereafter with occasional heavy foxing to some pages. Heavy spotted text block edge. DJ Condition: No DJ. Pages 205. Size: 8vo 21cm by 14cm. PROVENANCE: DARTINGTON HALL LIBRARY. Dartington Hall School was founded in 1925 by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. Dorothy (1887-1968) was the daughter of the well-known American financier and statesman, William C. Whitney. Dorothy married American investment banker Willard Straight. In 1914, along with the help of both Walter Lippmann and Herbert Croly, Dorothy and her husband founded the influential liberal magazine, The New Republic. Following Willards death four years later, Dorothy remarried in 1925 to Leonard Elmhirst (1893-1974) an intrepid agronomist. In the 1920s, Leonard lived in India serving as the Secretary to the 1913 Nobel Laureate for Literature Rabindranath Tagore. With funding from Dorothy, Leonard had helped Tagore set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction that would have a material influence on the Elmhirsts Utopian experiment at Dartington. Dartington Hall was a social and cultural experiment exemplifying an influential moment of British and international social reform triggered by the First World War. Reformers considered the war as a sign that the self-oriented and materialist nineteenth-century doctrine of laissez-faire liberalism had failed. Dartington Hall was one of many attempts to pursue a more Utopian approach. AUTHOR: Walter Lippmann (1889 -1974) American writer, reporter and political commentator First to introduce the concept of The Cold War, coining the term "stereotype" as well as critiquing media and democracy in his newspaper column and several books, most notably his 1922 book Public Opinion Lippmann also played a notable role in Woodrow Wilsons post-World War I board of inquiry, as its research director His views regarding the role of journalism in a democracy were contrasted with the contemporaneous writings of John Dewey in what has been retrospectively named the Lippmann-Dewey debate Lippmann won two Pulitzer Prizes. BOOK RESUME: In an era disgusted with politicians and the instruments of 'direct democracy,' Walter Lippmanns The Phantom Public remains as relevant as ever. It reveals Lippmann when he was most critical of the ills of American democracy. Anti-populist in sentiment, he defends elitism as a serious and distinctive intellectual option. Lippmanns demythologized view of the American system of government resonates today. The Phantom Public discusses the 'disenchanted man' who has become disillusioned not only with democracy. According to Lippmann, the average voter is incapable of governance; the public is merely a 'phantom. ' In terms of policy-making, the distinction should not be experts versus amateurs, but insiders versus outsiders. Lippmann challenges the core assumption of Progressive politics as well as any theory that pretends to leave political decision making in the hands of the people as a whole.

Seller Inventory # 9272

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Phantom Public
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace and Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1925
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ
• Signed: Inscribed and Signed by Author