Lies, Damned Lies, etc.

"Focusing principally on three milestones in the annals of empirical research — the famous study of Muncie, Ind., published as 'Middletown' in 1929; the emergence of George Gallup’s and Elmo Roper’s political polling in the 1930s; and the publication of the infamous Kinsey reports in 1948 and 1953 — Igo chronicles the emergence of a 'mass society' and the transformation of the American consciousness along statistical lines. In telling this story, Igo does for social statistics what Louis Menand’s 'Metaphysical Club' did for American pragmatism, providing a narrative intellectual history of the field."

Scott Stossel in The New York Times reviews Sarah Igo's The Averaged American.