Adam Berinsky's book, Political Rumors, focuses (as you might expect from the title) on political rumors. Berinsky argues that political rumors are important to study because they “can have broad-ranging consequences for the way in which ordinary citizens of all stripes interact with the political world” (3): they “can weaken trust in government” because “sowing doubt about political policies and claims is much easier than resolving such doubt” (11), and they “may directly affect policy. If people rely on faulty information, they might oppose policies they would otherwise support or support policies they would otherwise oppose” (12).

The book is self-described as being “a long time” in the works. As someone working on my own book project, I understand the frustration that must have entailed. But the readers of Political Rumors benefit from the long time horizon, which yields a wealth of data dating back to 2010 and includes experiments, surveys, qualitative data, and content analysis, all brought to bear on the subject of political rumors. The triangulation of data and mixed methods are one of the clear strengths of the book.

As a result, the book constitutes perhaps the most extensive analysis of political rumors as a specific subject matter. Berinsky explains that pol