For upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in public opinion and political behavior, Norrander (political science, U. of Arizona) and Wilcox (government, Georgetown U.) bring together 12 essays that detail public opinion research on a variety of topics and demonstrate the approaches used by social scientists. Political scientists from the US cover influential factors such as gender, ethnicity, and genetics, and attitudes towards the Iraq War, government response to Hurricane Katrina, abortion, the US government and George Bush, defendants in terrorism trials, after 9/11, and within political parties. Ten essays are new to this edition; two have been updated. A statistics primer is included in an appendix. There is no index. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)