---
title: The Phantom Public
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/
description: The Phantom Public by Walter Lippmann (1925), full text with provenance and rights.
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg)

[Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/) · Book

# The Phantom Public

At a glance

Lippmann's 1925 follow-up to Public Opinion, arguing that the "public" that democratic theory relies on is a phantom.

- **Author:** Walter Lippmann
- **Published:** 1925
- **Origin:** United States
- **Length:** 29,029 words, 17 chapters

Full details

- **Edition:** The Phantom Public. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1925 (Project Gutenberg's proofread transcription, released 2025 from a library scan)
- **Language:** English
- **Text source:** [Project Gutenberg, ebook #76966](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76966)
- **Text basis:** Proofread transcription by Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders. The author's footnotes are kept at the end of the chapter they belong to.
- **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1925, so in the public domain in the United States (published before 1931); Project Gutenberg marks the ebook public domain in the USA. Lippmann died in 1974, so a life-plus-70 term still runs in some other countries.
- **Rights checked:** October 2, 2026

On this page

- [Read the text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/#read)
- [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/#provenance)
- [Where it appears in the archive](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/#cited)

Walter Lippmann's 1925 book, a sequel to *Public Opinion* (1922), arguing that the sovereign and omnicompetent citizen of democratic theory cannot exist and that the public acts only at moments, by backing or opposing the people who run affairs. The archive's page on *Public Opinion* cites it, and this is the whole book, in three parts and sixteen chapters.

## Read the text

- [Dedication and Epigraphs](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/01-dedication-and-epigraphs/) 150 words
- Part I
- [1. The Disenchanted Man](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/02-the-disenchanted-man/) 1,338 words
- [2. The Unattainable Ideal](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/03-the-unattainable-ideal/) 3,040 words
- [3. Agents and Bystanders](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/04-agents-and-bystanders/) 2,094 words
- [4. What the Public Does](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/05-what-the-public-does/) 1,386 words
- [5. The Neutralization of Arbitrary Force](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/06-the-neutralization-of-arbitrary-force/) 1,851 words
- Part II
- [6. The Question Aristotle Asked](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/07-the-question-aristotle-asked/) 541 words
- [7. The Nature of a Problem](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/08-the-nature-of-a-problem/) 2,277 words
- [8. Social Contracts](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/09-social-contracts/) 2,054 words
- [9. The Two Questions Before the Public](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/10-the-two-questions-before-the-public/) 372 words
- [10. The Main Value of Public Debate](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/11-the-main-value-of-public-debate/) 808 words
- [11. The Defective Rule](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/12-the-defective-rule/) 1,682 words
- [12. The Criteria of Reform](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/13-the-criteria-of-reform/) 2,823 words
- [13. The Principles of Public Opinion](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/14-the-principles-of-public-opinion/) 1,303 words
- Part III
- [14. Society in Its Place](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/15-society-in-its-place/) 2,955 words
- [15. Absentee Rulers](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/16-absentee-rulers/) 2,199 words
- [16. The Realms of Disorder](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/17-the-realms-of-disorder/) 2,156 words

[Download as plain text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/lippmann-phantom-public-1925/lippmann-phantom-public-1925.txt) 29,029 words, with the provenance header above the text

## Provenance and rights

- **Edition:** The Phantom Public. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1925 (Project Gutenberg's proofread transcription, released 2025 from a library scan)
- **Text source:** [Project Gutenberg, ebook #76966](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76966)
- **Text basis:** Proofread transcription by Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders. The author's footnotes are kept at the end of the chapter they belong to.
- **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1925, so in the public domain in the United States (published before 1931); Project Gutenberg marks the ebook public domain in the USA. Lippmann died in 1974, so a life-plus-70 term still runs in some other countries. Checked October 2, 2026.
- **Changes made:** Line wraps rejoined and headings set in title case; the Project Gutenberg licence header and footer removed. Wording, spelling and punctuation are the source's own. The contents list and the index are left out (the index's page numbers refer to the printed book). The dedication and the two epigraphs are kept.
- **Source file checksum:** `3cbd2504bd747822…` (SHA-256 of the download this text was made from)

## Where it appears in the archive

- [Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (1922)](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/lippmann-public-opinion/)