Examines how social issues have been presented in television programs from the 1950s to the present

Watching America (What Television Tells Us About Our Lives)

Humor & Entertainment

Rothman, Stanley

Lichter, S. Robert

Lichter, Linda S.

Television

Simon&Schuster

This book aims to show how the young rebels are not the best of their generation, and shows that ulterior motives guided Jewish Americans in the student Left.

Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Christians, and the New Left

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Oxford University Press

This study shows how philanthropic foundations and their leaders help shape the American political agenda. The authors' central argument is that foundation leaders are members of a key social and political elite in American society. Relying on a survey of such leaders and on an examination of foundation public policy grants, the authors demonstrate that members of the foundation elite are among the most polarized groups in American society.This study shows how philanthropic foundations and their leaders help shape the American political agenda. The authors' central argument is that foundation leaders are members of a key social and political elite in American society. Relying on a survey of such leaders and on an examination of foundation public policy grants, the authors demonstrate that members of the foundation elite are among the most polarized groups in American society.Contrary to popular belief, those who control foundations seek to make American more progressive. Public policy oriented foundations are largely liberal in outlook and make grants primarily to liberal individuals and organizations. The authors examine the dilemmas that the existence of such organizations create for democratic political theory. The discussion is placed in the context of a historical overview of the role of foundations in American society; it will be of great interest to public policy professionals, political scientists, and those who track the direction of the national agenda.

Giving for Social Change: Foundations, Public Policy, and the American Political Agenda

Nagai, Althea K.

Lerner, Robert

Social Sciences

Praeger

Molding the Good Citizen: The Politics of High School History Texts

A series of culture wars are being fought in America today; Lerner, Nagai, and Rothman contend that one key battleground is the nation's high school texts. The authors argue that today's textbook controversies, as exemplified in the proposed National Standards for the Study of United States and World History, reflect changes in American public philosophy and the education profession. Conventional wisdom among students of the curriculum is that the major threat to freedom of the schools comes from the religious right. While this may have been true at one time, Lerner, Nagai, and Rothman assert that the major thrust today involves the imposition on schools of the ideology of particular groups that seek to use education as a mechanism for changing society. They document the growing influence of these groups, and their supporters among educators, through an extensive quantitative content analysis of leading high school history texts over the past 40 years and a historical analysis of how this outlook and the willingness to impose it became part of educators' conventional wisdom.The authors document the growing influence of these groups, and their supporters among educators, in two ways. First, they present an extensive quantitative content analysis of leading high school history texts over the past 40 years, demonstrating in detail the feminist and multicultural perspectives that have come to dominate them. Second, they provide a historical analysis of how this outlook and the willingness to impose it became part of educators' conventional wisdom, tracing current policies back to the influence of the Progressive education movement led by John Dewey. This controversial book will be of exceptional interest to the general public as well as to researchers and students of education, public policy, and American intellectual history.

History

Americas

Molding the Good Citizen

The Least Dangerous Branch?: Consequences of Judicial Activism

Is the American judiciary still the least dangerous branch, as Alexander Hamilton and legal scholar Alexander Bickel characterized it? Unlike legislatures or administrative agencies, courts do not make policy so much as direct and redirect policy as it is implemented. The judicial contribution to policymaking involves the infusion of constitutional rights into the realm of public policy, and as the government has grown, the courts have become more powerful from doing more and more of this. Powers and Rothman explore the impact of the federal courts, providing a brief account of the development of constitutional law and an overview of the judiciary's impact in six controversial areas of public policy.
•Busing
 •Affirmative action
 •Prison reform
 •Mental health reform
 •Procedural reforms in law enforcement
 •Electoral redistricting
 In each of these areas, the authors review significant cases that bear on the particular policy, exploring the social science evidence to assess the impact of the courts on policies―and the consequences of that intervention. Powers and Rothman conclude that judicial intervention in public policy has often brought about undesirable consequences, sometimes even for the intended beneficiaries of government intervention.

Powers, Stephen P.

Rules & Procedures

Constitutional Law

Based on the most comprehensive survey ever conducted on elite groups in the U.S., this book draws a fascinating portrait of American leaders, from federal judges and business executives to military officers and motion picture magnates. The authors examine theories of American society and analyze characteristics and differences among elite groups-groups they find sharply divided in complex ways on various issues.

American Elites

Yale University Press

Media reports on environmental cancer are frequent and frightening. Public policy―and public spending―reflect widespread concern over the presence of carcinogens in our air and water and food. Yet how reliable is mass media information about environmental cancer? How accurate are the risk assessments that underlie our public policy decisions? In this provocative book, S. Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman examine the controversies surrounding environmental cancer and place them in historical perspective. Then, drawing on surveys of cancer researchers and environmental activists, they reveal that there are sharp differences between the two groups` viewpoints on environmental cancer. Despite these differences, a further comparison―between the views of the two groups and the content of television and newspaper accounts over a two-decade period―shows that press reports most frequently cite the views of environmental activists as if they were the views of the scientific community. These findings cast doubt on the objectivity of the news media and environmental activists. And, the authors conclude, misplaced fears about the risks of environmental cancer have seriously distorted public policy and priorities.

Environmental Cancer―A Political Disease?

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Computers and Society: The Technology and Its Social Implications

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Books by Rothman, Stanley