The most significant modern work on its subject....Habermas offers perhaps the richest, best developed conceptualization available of the social nature and foundations of public life. -- Craig J. Calhoun, Contemporary Sociology This is Jurgen Habermas's most concrete historical-sociological book and one of the key contributions to political thought in the postwar period. It will be a revelation to those who have known Habermas only through his theoretical writing to find his later interests in problems of legitimation and communication foreshadowed in this lucid study of the origins, nature, and evolution of public opinion in democratic societies. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.