Paul Kellstedt examines variation in Americans' racial attitudes over the last half-century, particularly in the relationship between media coverage and American public opinion. His analyses reveal that racial policy preferences have evolved in an unpredicted way over the past fifty years. Sustained periods of liberalism, invariably followed by eras of conservatism, respond to cues presented in the national media. Kellstedt examines this relationship between attitudes on the two major issues of the twentieth century--race and the welfare state.

Paul M. Kellstedt's and Guy D. Whitten's The Fundamentals of Political Science Research provides an introduction to the scientific study of politics, supplying students with the basic tools needed to be both critical consumers and producers of scholarly research in political science. The book begins with a discussion of what it means to take a scientific approach to the study of politics. At the core of such an approach is the development of causal theories. Because there is no magic formula by which theories are developed, the authors present a series of strategies and develop an integrated...