Murray Jacob Edelman (1919 – January 26, 2001) was an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

known for his research on symbolic politics and

political psychology ''Political Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published bimonthly by Wiley on behalf of the International Society of Political Psychology. The editors-in-chief are Orla Muldoon of the University of Limerick, Ireland and James Liu ...

Career

Edelman received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

from

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

in 1941, a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1942 and a Ph.D. in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1948. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois that year, and remained there until he joined the faculty of the

University of Wisconsin - Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

in 1966. Edelman was awarded a University Houses chair in 1971, which he named for

George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, Sociology, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatis ...

, an inspiration for much of his own work on symbolic politics. Edelman retired in 1990. Edelman received many awards during his career, including

Fulbright Award The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

s and fellowships from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...

and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. A brief review of his seminal book, ''The Symbolic Uses of Politics'' appearing in ''ETC.'', the quarterly journal of

General Semantics General semantics is a school of thought that incorporates philosophy, philosophic and science, scientific aspects. Although it does not stand on its own as a separate list of schools of philosophy, school of philosophy, a separate science, or ...

(Arthur A. Berger, September 1971 issue—Vol 28, No. 3) noted that Edelman's approach and analysis would be congenial to students of General Semantics.

Books

* ''The Symbolic Uses of Politics'' (hardcover publication originally 1964; later paperback reprints) * ''Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence'' (1971) * ''Political Language: Words that succeed and policies that fail'' (1977) * ''Constructing the Political Spectacle'' (1988) * ''From Art to Politics: How Artistic Creations Shape Political Conceptions'' (1996) * ''The Politics of Misinformation'' (2001)

References

External links

Mark Fenster: Murray Edelman, Polemicist of Public Ignorance
published in Critical Review 17 (2005), nos. 3–4. 1919 births 2001 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Bucknell University alumni University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American political scientists University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni {{US-scientist-stub