Review essay: Studies in the public sphere

Abstract

BEYOND FEMINIST AESTHETICS: FEMINIST LITERATURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE. By Rita Felski. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989; pp. 222. $13.50. THE BLACK PUBLIC SPHERE: A PUBLIC CULTURE BOOK. Edited by The Black Public Sphere Collective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995; pp. 350. $17.95. HABERMAS AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE. Edited by Craig Calhoun. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992; pp. x + 498. $19.95. LIBERALISM AND THE PROBLEM OF KNOWLEDGE: A NEW RHETORIC FOR MODERN DEMOCRACY. By Charles Willard. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1996; pp. x + 384. $17.95. NUMBERED VOICES: HOW OPINION POLLING HAS SHAPED AMERICAN POLITICS. By Susan Herbst. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993; pp. xi‐227. $24.95; paper $14.95. THE PHANTOM PUBLIC SPHERE. Edited by Bruce Robbins. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993; pp. xxvi‐310. $21.95. PUBLIC SPHERE AND EXPERIENCE: TOWARD AN ANALYSIS OF THE BOURGEOIS AND PROLETARIAN PUBLIC SPHERE. By Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge. Translated by Peter Labanyi, Jamie Owen Daniel, and Assenka Oksiloff. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993; pp. xli‐305. $44.95