Robert M. Entman develops a powerful new model of how media framing works - a model that allows him to explain why the media cheered American victories over small-time dictators in Grenada and Panama but barely noticed far more difficult missions in Haiti and Kosovo.

What motivates us to change our opinions during times of political protest and social unrest? To investigate this question, Taeku Lee's smartly argued book looks to the critical struggle over the moral principles, group interests, and racial animosities that defined public support for racial policies during the civil rights movement, from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. Challenging the conventional view that public opinion is shaped by elites, Lee crafts an alternate account of the geographic, institutional, historical, and issue-specific contexts that form our political views. He finds that...

Are Americans less prejudiced now than they were thirty years ago, or has racism simply gone "underground"? Is racism something we learn as children, or is it a result of certain social groups striving to maintain their privileged positions in society?
In "Racialized Politics," political scientists, sociologists, and psychologists explore the current debate surrounding the sources of racism in America. Published here for the first time, the essays represent three major approaches to the topic. The social psychological approach maintains that prejudice socialized early in life feeds...

Katharine Cramer Walsh shows how political conversation, friendship, and identity evolve together, creating stronger communities and social ties. But she also reveals how such informal discussion can have negative effects, reinforcing boundaries and encouraging exclusivity.

Whether at parties, around the dinner table, or at the office, people talk about politics all the time. Yet while such conversations are a common part of everyday life, political scientists know very little about how they actually work. In "Talking about Politics," Katherine Cramer Walsh provides an innovative, intimate study of how ordinary people use informal group discussions to make sense of politics.
Walsh examines how people rely on social identities-their ideas of who "we" are-to come to terms with current events. In Talking about Politics, she shows how political conversation,...