A Sampling of Opinions

This book, says the author, was designed to “open a window into the mind of America” and perhaps it has succeeded even better than Mr. Stouffer had intended because, in a way, its motivation and conception, its mode of procedure and its basic premises are as significant as its findings.

The particular regions of the American mind which Mr. Stouffer and his associates have set out to explore were the public’s reaction to the twin dangers of “the Communist conspiracy outside and inside (the U.S.A.) and to those who in thwarting the conspiracy would sacrifice some of the liberties which the enemy would destroy.” In order to find out what the American people really thought about these problems, Mr. Stouff...