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The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream | 
 enlarge | Author: John Zogby
Creator: Dick Hill
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $11.58
You Save: $8.41 (42%)
New (20) Used (4) from $11.58
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 235825
Format: Audiobook, Cd, Mp3 Audio, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 140015815X
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.097309045
EAN: 9781400158157
ASIN: 140015815X
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In the tradition of Why We Buy, preeminent pollster John Zogby identifies key trends in American culture and suggests how companies from the Fortune 500 to the neighborhood deli can use this information to improve their business.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Superficial analysis November 29, 2008
Digital Puer (Los Angeles, CA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a survey of various polls taken by the author and his polling company, and from the results, the author makes a number of assertions that, while entertaining and encouraging, really cannot be substantiated through the poll results in an objective manner.
The one overarching theme that the author presents is that today's 18-29 year-olds are the First Globals, born into a world that is more open and globalised than ever. The author posits that this generation will lead the way into a new era sans prejudice or American selfishness. The problem with this line of reasoning is that young folks have *always* been more liberal, more at ease, more anti-establishment, and more open to new ideas. Think Romeo & Juliet and the Woodstock crowd. Unfortunately, these young, open-minded, fair Democrats generally turn into selfish, pig-headed, hateful Republicans. This is what happens when young folks turn old and start popping out little kids; their thoughts turn from a global perspective to a local, protective one. The author does not even mention this natural, obvious evolution until page 197 out of his 215 page book.
The book carries this assertion to the extreme. Through the results coming from a variety of polls and questions, the author believes that today's 18-29 generation is different from any other 18-29 generation in the history of the world. True, there is more globalisation, open communication through the Internet, and world visibility. However, the author needs to look no further than the 65+ year-old generation he additionally polled to see how these young folks will generally turn out. What would have been convincing is if the author had taken poll data from several decades ago to see if the attitudes of yesterday's youth are as open-minded as today's youth. The author presents only a few such older poll results from Gallup while the rest are from his organisation over the last five or so years. This lack of depth in comparing actual old data is quite disappointing.
Furthermore, the author draws his conclusion in very ad hoc ways from his polls. On page 92-93, he asks a number of people if they do not support the concept of "My country, right or wrong," and while the numbers for "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree" are large and clear on the page, the author instead suggests "What's the underlying dynamic? I think the answer can be found in the high 'unsure' percentage among the young." It is as if the author is picking and choosing the numbers to back his own biases, and just to be clear on this, the "unsure" value of 14% in that example is not significantly higher than many of the other "unsure" values in other polling questions.
One other thing I was very disappointed with is that the book is really written for a layman audience, and while the author spends a small portion of time in the first chapter describing margin-of-error, I really wished he had gone into more detail on the mechanics of polling and tabulation as well as the statistical theory behind his work.
 Lots of conjecture November 23, 2008
My2cents
His description of the population between 18-32 -- The First Globals -- was eye-opening, but without taking into account racial, socio-economic and geographic differences, many of the interpretations seemed unfounded. Many of his descriptions of my group -- the Just Do Its -- did not apply to me, nor did they seem believeable over the vast age span. I suppose readers will take out the evidence for what they already believe and dismiss the rest, but I did not take away a fresh perspective about my future.
Dubious polls and Zogby's biases and ignorance make for a poor read November 12, 2008
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
John Zogby is a tireles self-promoter. His flacks flog him as a "super-pollster', though his real-world results don't separate him from the herd.
Here, Zogby attempts to articulate the "transformation of the American dream". Essentially Zogby tells you what he thinks and then, magically, produces poll results to support his contention. Who needs objectivity? Not Zogby.
Zogby's personal biases, particularly political, and his ignorance are on display. He claims that Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy didn't campaign to the "lowest common denominator". First of all, Lincoln didn't campaign. Back then Presidential campaigns were waged entirely by surrogates - and Lincoln's campaign was particularly nasty. Roosevelt reveled in the dirty campaign and he was personally vindictive as well. Kenendy campaigned on a platform of lies, such as the non-existent missile gap. Nixon could not respond because it would have revealed our intelligence secrets to the Soviets.
Zogby claims the three "offered broad visions and empowering promises; they appealed to the best in the electorate, not the worst". Zogby could use massive education in this regard - and yet he lectures the rest of us.
Overall, this is nothing more than the posturing of a self-promoter. It is not a serious or scholarly work and is certainly devoid of any scientific value. It isn't very entertaining either.
Jerry
 An Objective Pollster November 11, 2008
Mark L. Meyer (Parker, CO)
Good read. Ultimately encouraging results. Would be interested in seeing his results using the same queries after this economic mess we are in gets resolved.
 tedious, with pre-determined outcomes October 24, 2008
M Dallas (Dallas)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
great premise but falls way short with little useful future insight and plenty of opinion vs. legitimate analysis
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