Larry Bartels has published a new book, The Politics of Social Change: From the Sixties to the Present Through the Eyes of a Generation. Bartels and coauthor Katherine Cramer used a remarkable decades-long study tracking the political attitudes of people who graduated from high school in 1965 to show how contemporary America’s bitter political divide grew out of disparate reactions to the momentous social changes of the Sixties, including the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s movement, the expanding role of government in the provision of social welfare, and the eroding cultural authority of the police, the military, and religious leaders. The Sixties are generally depicted as an era of inspiring social progress. But many members of the Class of ’65—especially people from modest backgrounds with traditional moral upbrings who did not go to college—opposed that “progress.” By the 1970s they were shifting to the Republican Party in response, and a half-century later many have rallied to the notion that rolling back the social change of the past six decades will Make America Great Again.

Brett V. Benson and Bradley C. Smith have published a new book, The Window Before: The Politics of Alliance Implementation. The book addresses a critical question: Do military alliances deter or provoke conflict? This book explores this question by examining the often-overlooked phase of alliance implementation, a complex and prolonged process that occurs before an alliance’s deterrent benefits are realized. Professors Benson and Smith argue that the formation of new alliances does not immediately translate into increased military strength. Instead, states must navigate political and military challenges to operationalize their alliance, creating a vulnerable window of time before an alliance is implemented. The authors reveal that while fully realized alliances can enhance deterrence and foster peace, their preliminary stages can provoke conflict, as potential enemies may wage preventive war to counteract the anticipated shift in power.