Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions. By Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 342p. $55.00.

Abstract

This work is touted as the only book-length examination of the sociological model of vote choice in American politics since David Knoke's The Social Bases of Political Parties (1976), and it is, indeed, a well-researched examination of the role that race, class, religion, and gender play in our under- standing of voter alignments in the United States. At the same time, I have concerns about some of the methodological decisions made by the authors and the effect of these choices on their conclusions.