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Think Tanks in America

Thomas Medvetz author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:9th Oct '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Think Tanks in America cover

Over the past half-century, think tanks have become fixtures of American politics, supplying advice to presidents and policymakers, expert testimony on Capitol Hill, and convenient facts and figures to journalists and media specialists. But what are think tanks? Who funds them? And just how influential have they become? In "Think Tanks in America", Thomas Medvetz argues that the unsettling ambiguity of the think tank is less an accidental feature of its existence than the very key to its impact. By combining elements of more established sources of public knowledge - universities, government agencies, businesses, and the media - think tanks exert a tremendous amount of influence on the way citizens and lawmakers perceive the world, unbound by the more clearly defined roles of those other institutions. In the process, they transform the government of this country, the press, and the political role of intellectuals. Timely, succinct, and instructive, this provocative book will force us to rethink our understanding of the drivers of political debate in the United States.

"Thomas Medvetz does us a huge service by analyzing the development of policy expertise, its shifting institutional locations, and the impact of both on academic social science and public affairs. This is an important book on an important issue. (Craig Calhoun, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science)"

ISBN: 9780226517292

Dimensions: 24mm x 17mm x 2mm

Weight: 624g

344 pages