Description: "How did America get here? In The Politics of Social Change, Larry M. Bartels and Katherine J. Cramer find the seeds of America's current political turmoil in the diverse reactions of its citizens to six decades of rapid social change. Their analysis draws on a unique scientific resource: the longest-running systematic study ever attempted to track individual American's political attitudes and behavior, comprising interviews conducted over the past several decades with hundreds of people who graduated from high school in 1965. By tracing the responses of the Class of '65 to the major events of their political lifetimes - including the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements, the Vietnam War, the shifting role of religion, escalating economic inequality, immigration, and the rise of Donald Trump - the authors shed new light on the evolution of public opinion, the meaning of citizenship, and the unsteady progress of American democracy"-- Provided by publisher.
Brief description: Larry M. Bartels is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Law and May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. His books include Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age and (with Christopher H. Achen) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.
Review Quotes:
"Larry Bartels and Katherine Cramer are a dream team at the top of their game in both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Capitalizing on one of the most remarkable long-term survey research projects ever mounted, they have produced a rich and uniquely valuable perspective on more than six decades of social and political change. Seen through the eyes of America's high school seniors of 1965, the sophisticated, twisting tale that Bartels and Cramer tell leads tragically to today's angry, unequal, dispirited, and polarized America."
--Robert D. Putnam author of "Bowling Alone" and "The Upswing"