George Gallup founded the Gallup and Robinson, Inc. in 1935. It actually started out as a moonlighting gig from his job at Young & Rubicam. Today, it stands as a $130 million company with a brand name as recognizable to consumers as Mcdonald's or even Coke. It operates in 20 countries, with a revenue growing at an average of 30% annually. Although the company is probably best known for the Gallup Poll, which monitors social, political, and economic issues, most of the company's business comes from marketing and management research.

Six decades on, the empire founded upon this more-or-less accurate insight still stands. Its capital is Princeton, New Jersey, home to the Gallup Organization as well as a clutch of related outfits such as the George H. Gallup International Institute, run by George Gallup, Jr., his son. Gallup remains one of the most assiduous measurers of America. And, because it has been about this task longer than anyone else, Gallup's polls offer a window on how the United States has changed, and how the polls themselves have contributed to that process.

      Gallup's surveys, then and now, are designed to find out what people think. He was an ironic purveyor of cultural homogeneity.

       Some of Gallup's polls, like the controversies around them, reflect America's continuity. For instance, in 1936, Gallup asked Americans whether it was time to balance the budget and reduce the national debt. 70% replied in favor. Both the question and answer could have come from the nineties. Similarly, back in 1951, 88%told Gallup pollsters that they had heard of children buying drugs. Girls in the nineties are just as keen on jobs in the so-called caring professions as they were in the 1970s, despite feminist advancements.

      Here, we come to the point, where we make a distinction. There are two different organizations - the George H. Gallup International Institute and the Gallup Organization.

      The former is a public charity named after the founder while, the Gallup Organization is a separate entity. It was sold by the Gallup family eight years ago to the Selection Research Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska. It conducts 1,500 surveys every year on a wide variety of topics. Most of the work is in the area of market research and is done for a variety of private clients. They also poll regularly for CNN and USA Today, and new topics are developed in close consultation with these two additional clients. The Gallup Organization is now the largest survey research company of its kind in the world.