Synopses & Reviews
From World War II to the war in Iraq, periods of international conflict seem like unique moments in U.S. political historyand#8212;but when it comes to public opinion, they are not. To make this groundbreaking revelation, In Time of War explodes conventional wisdom about American reactions to World War II, as well as the more recent conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Adam Berinsky argues that public response to these crises has been shaped less by their defining characteristicsand#8212;such as what they cost in lives and resourcesand#8212;than by the same political interests and group affiliations that influence our ideas about domestic issues.
With the help of World War IIand#8211;era survey data that had gone virtually untouched for the past sixty years, Berinsky begins by disproving the myth of and#8220;the good warand#8221; that Americans all fell in line to support after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The attack, he reveals, did not significantly alter public opinion but merely punctuated interventionist sentiment that had already risen in response to the ways that political leaders at home had framed the fighting abroad. Weaving his findings into the first general theory of the factors that shape American wartime opinion, Berinsky also sheds new light on our reactions to other crises. He shows, for example, that our attitudes toward restricted civil liberties during Vietnam and after 9/11 stemmed from the same kinds of judgments we make during times of peace.
With Iraq and Afghanistan now competing for attention with urgent issues within the United States, In Time of War offers a timely reminder of the full extent to which foreign and domestic politics profoundly influenceand#8212;and ultimately illuminateand#8212;each other.
Review
and#8220;
In Time of War is a must read for students of public opinion and American political history and foreign policy. Berinskyand#8217;s careful research shows decisively the value of public opinion dataand#8212;both new and oldand#8212;and how such data can correct misperceptions about recent history as well as challenge misperceptions, if not myths, about the past and its often idealized politics.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Adam Berinskyand#8217;s core insight, that citizens respond far more to elite discourse about events than to the events themselves, persuasively refutes the dominant perspective in the literature on public opinion and American foreign policy. Rather than relying solely on a reanalysis of data from recent conflicts, Berinsky also undertakes a unique historical expedition into public opinion during World War II. This allows him to present a comprehensive picture across seven decades, resulting in a tour de force of methodologically rigorous and theoretically rich public opinion research.and#8221;
Review
"A major advancement in scholarship on a topic that is both timely . . . and of enduring importance. In addition to being a persuasive piece of research, it is a highly readable book that would make an ideal text for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses. Indeed, the core of the book . . . should be required reading for any course on public opinion about foreign policy."
Review
and#8220;Adam Berninskyand#8217;s In Time of War represents a major step forward in our understanding of American public opinion and foreign policy. His penetrating analysis of survey data on public reactions to wars ranging from World War II through Afghanistan and Iraq casts new and provocative light on a variety of controversies in the literature. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest, scholarly or otherwise, in the subject.and#8221;
Review
"[Berinsky] assembles some impressive and disturbing statistics that will confirm some readers' worst doubts about how little reasoning goes into American popular feeling about their country's wars."
Review
and#8220;William G. Howell, Saul P. Jackman, and Jon C. Rogowski continue the valuable and highly regarded line of presidency research that integrates modern analytical techniques with deep substantive knowledge. No question in American politics is of greater importanceand#8212;or more timelyand#8212;than the power of the president and his relationship with Congress, and
The Wartime President makes a clearly written and cutting-edge contribution that is sure to spur further research.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;
The Wartime President offers a compelling, original theory of how war affects presidential power. By demonstrating through rigorous empirical analysis that war empowers the president when it leads the public and members of Congress to focus on national concerns rather than local priorities, William G. Howell, Saul P. Jackman, and Jon C. Rogowski dramatically advance our understanding of the presidency and of our separation of powers system.andrdquo;
Synopsis
andldquo;It is the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority,andrdquo; wrote Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers. The balance of power between Congress and the president has been a powerful thread throughout American political thought since the time of the Founding Fathers. And yet, for all that has been written on the topic, we still lack a solid empirical or theoretical justification for Hamiltonandrsquo;s proposition.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
For the first time, William G. Howell, Saul P. Jackman, and Jon C. Rogowski systematically analyze the question. Congress, they show, is more likely to defer to the presidentandrsquo;s policy preferences when political debates center on national rather than local considerations. Thus, World War II and the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq significantly augmented presidential power, allowing the president to enact foreign and domestic policies that would have been unattainable in times of peace. But, contrary to popular belief, there are also times when war has little effect on a presidentandrsquo;s influence in Congress. The Vietnam and Gulf Wars, for instance, did not nationalize our politics nearly so much, and presidential influence expanded only moderately.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Built on groundbreaking research, The Wartime President offers one of the most significant works ever written on the wartime powers presidents wield at home.
About the Author
William G. Howell is the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and professor of political science in the College at the University of Chicago. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including, most recently,
Thinking about the Presidency: The Primacy of Power and
While Dangers Gather: Congressional Checks on Presidential War Powers.Saul P. Jackman is a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
Jon C. Rogowski is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis.
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: BACKGROUND
1 War and the American Presidency
1.1 A Notion Expressed
1.2 A Notion Evaluated
1.3 Sifting through the Claims
1.4 Quantitative Studies on War and Presidential Power
1.5 Moving Forward
PART II: THEORIZING ABOUT INTERBRANCH BARGAINING DURING WAR
2 The Policy Priority Model
2.1 Theoretical Building Blocks: Policies, Outcomes,
and Interbranch Bargaining
2.2 The Model
2.3 Nontechnical Summary
2.4 Conclusion
3 The Modeland#8217;s Predictions about Modern U.S. Wars
3.1 Defining War
3.2 Which Equilibrium Are We Playing?
3.3 Mea sur ing the Prioritization of National Outcomes
3.4 Characterizing the Wars
3.5 Key Expectations
3.6 Competing Explanations
3.7 A closing Note on Theory Testing
PART III: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS
4 Spending in War and in Peace
4.1 Data
4.2 Primary Analyses
4.3 Strategic Proposal Making
4.4 Distinguishing between Two Theoretically Informed Causal Mechanisms
4.5 A Comment on Endogenous War Making
4.6 Conclusion
5 Voting in War and in Peace
5.1 Data and Methods
5.2 Post- 9/11 Wars and the 107th Congress
5.3 Earlier Wars
5.4 World War I and the Relevance of Stateside Attacks
5.5 War and Other Crises
5.6 Conclusion
6 Case Studies I: Illustrations
6.1 The First Total War
6.2 Pearl Harbor and National Labor Policy
6.3 Roo se velt and All the Resplendence of a War time Presidency
6.4 The Immigration Provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act
6.5 final remarks
7 Case Studies II: Challenges
7.1 The Federal Government Enters the Public Education Business
7.2 The Great Society and the 1965 Decision to Send Ground Troops into Vietnam
7.3 Bushand#8217;s War time Effort to Reform Social Security
7.4 Final Remarks
PART IV: CONCLUSION
8 Summaries, Speculations, and Extensions
8.1 Holes and Extensions
8.2 The Future of War
8.3 A Future for the Policy Priority Model
PART V: APPENDIXES
A Technical Details, Chapter 2
B Alternative Bridging Criteria, Chapter 5
C Summary Tables, Chapter 5
D Robustness Checks, Chapter 5
D.1 Alternative Est imat ion Procedures 308
D.2 Alternative Interest Group Bridges
D.3 Changes in the Agenda
D.4 Subsets of Roll Call Votes
D.5 Defining the Beginning of War
D.6 Rising Conservatism and War
D.7 Placebo Tests
Bibliography
Index