Lee Sigelman - Böcker

A fascinating contribution to the scholarship of both political science and literature, this book explores eight major genres of contemporary popular fiction generally assumed to be essentially devoid of political content--children's novels, Westerns, middle-class fiction, historical novels, small-town Americana, sports novels, American war fiction, and science fiction. By uncovering the often covert mythical themes and cultural symbols hidden in the plot formulas of these works--many of them bestsellers--the essays illustrate the debt of mass-market authors to cultural and political traditions that reach back to the origins of the American Republic.

Although the opinions of whites on issues of race and inequality have been examined in depth, the perceptions of blacks about these issues have been largely ignored. This book is a path-breaking analysis of black opinions about the sources of their inequality in American society and the appropriate means for redressing this imbalance. Using the results of a variety of national surveys of blacks conducted during the past decade, Sigelman and Welch describe the range of opinion within the black population and account for different views by identifying key influences on opinion formation. They examine correlations among various personal characteristics, such as gender, age, socio-economic status, and educational attainment, and different explanations of inequality, focusing either on conditions within the black community or on exogenous factors, such as discrimination.

A striking but little recognized change in race relations during the past two decades has seen the declining levels of racial segregation in most of America's major metropolitan areas. More American cities are beginning to have black and white residents. An integral component of this decline in residential segregation has been the large-scale movement of blacks to the suburbs. This book focuses on the attitudes and behavior of African Americans and whites. Will whites' attitudes about blacks and blacks' attitudes toward whites change if they are living in integrated neighborhoods rather than apart from one another? Are black suburbanites more likely to share the views of their fellow white suburbanites or of their fellow African Americans in the central city? Will residential integration and new patterns of race in the suburbs break down divisions between blacks and whites in their views of local public services?

A striking but little recognized change in race relations during the past two decades has seen the declining levels of racial segregation in most of America's major metropolitan areas. More American cities are beginning to have black and white residents. An integral component of this decline in residential segregation has been the large-scale movement of blacks to the suburbs. This book focuses on the attitudes and behavior of African Americans and whites. Will whites' attitudes about blacks and blacks' attitudes toward whites change if they are living in integrated neighborhoods rather than apart from one another? Are black suburbanites more likely to share the views of their fellow white suburbanites or of their fellow African Americans in the central city? Will residential integration and new patterns of race in the suburbs break down divisions between blacks and whites in their views of local public services?

Few academic disciplines have recorded their own origins and development in an organized way. The American Political Science Association, in cooperation with Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honor society, and the University of Kentucky, have undertaken an extensive oral history project, the aim of which is to trace and record the growth of the discipline. The program has made it possible to amass hours of interviews with women and men who have influenced the study of political science.Political Science in America contains interviews with fifteen major figures who speak frankly about the intellectual and institutional roots of political science and trace its evolution. Through their words, we learn what it was like to be a part of the earliest Ph.D. programs and to work with early leaders.We discover how these leaders became interested in political science, what roles they played in building departments and research organizations, and what they learned from participation in government and politics. They discuss their own contributions and offer opinions on some of the major conflicts that have divided the discipline. Particularly enlightening are their varied perspectives on the growth of the behavioral movement in political science over the past fifty years. This book is of interest to all political scientists as a historical perspective on their discipline.