Murray Edelman's classic book, The Symbolic Uses of Politics, has exerted a strong and enduring influence on political communication scholarship since its publication in 1964 and remains an all-time best-seller for the University of Illinois Press. The Symbolic Uses of Politics is the germinal work on symbolic politics as it explores the influence of cultural signs, myths, rites, and other symbolic forms of communication on political involvement and institutions. In his review of The Symbolic Uses of Politics, noted political scientist Harold D. Lasswell wrote that Edelman's book “is evidence of the degree to which the political scientist's map has changed.” Lasswell also notes that at “every point comments or hypotheses are put forward that will undoubtedly focus future research.”

Indeed, Lasswell's early observation has been ...