How the Economy and Partisanship Shaped the 2012 Presidential and Congressional Elections
Gary C. Jacobson analyzes the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. He finds that Barack Obama won despite the weak economy because Democrat partisans outnumbered Republican in the highly polarized electorate and remained unusually loyal to their candidate. The relationship between presidential and House and Senate voting patterns was extraordinarily strong, making it the most partisan, nationalized, and president-centered election in at least 60 years. 

The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and Conservatism
Amitai Etzioni examines the frequently employed distinction between the public and the private realms. He concludes that this dichotomy as well as the one between liberalism and conservatism is becoming obsolete because both realms are increasingly intertwined and tend to move in tandem. Such observations urge reexaminations of several key assumptions of public philosophy. 

The Consequences of Forced State Failure in Iraq
ANDREW FLIBBERT discusses the Iraq war and its aftermath. He argues that most of the pathologies in Iraqi political life since 2003, from sectarian mobilization to insurgent violence, are best understood as consequences of forced state failure. He contends that the war should not be viewed as badly conducted so much as badly conceived, claiming that the same ideas that led to the war also determined the shape of the peace in subsequent years. 

Responses to Labor Market Challenges: Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, 1990–2008
KATE NICHOLLS looks at policy responses to labor market challenges in Ireland, Portugal, and Greece between 1990 and 2008, focusing in particular on work-life balance, higher education, and immigration policies. She argues that there is greater divergence among the recent developmental paths taken by these three “bailout” countries than is often assumed. 

The Point Four Program and U.S. International Development Policy
STEPHEN MACEKURA explores the intellectual roots and policy precedents of President Harry Truman’s Point Four program. He argues that many of the ideas and policies encapsulated in Point Four helped to shape the extensive foreign aid, economic development, and modernization policies of the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations. 

Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics and the Young Can Remake Race in America, Jennifer Hochschild, Vesla Weaver and Traci Burch
Reviewed by Rogers M. Smith

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism, Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann
Reviewed by Gerald M. Pomper

Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics, David J. Gillespie
Reviewed by DOUGLAS J. AMY

The Cold War and After: History, Theory, and the Logic of International Politics, Marc Trachtenberg
Reviewed by William C. Wohlforth

Small Works: Poverty and Economic Development in Southwestern China, John A. Donaldson
Reviewed by THOMAS P. BERNSTEIN

Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China, Xi Chen
Reviewed by Andrew Scobell

The Saddam Tapes: The Inner Workings of a Tyrant’s Regime, 1978–2001, Kevin M. Woods, David D. Palkki and Mark E. Stout, eds.
Reviewed by Andrew Flibbert

Latinos in the New Millenium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences, John A. Garcia, Rodney E. Hero, Luis Fraga and et al.
Reviewed by Rodolfo O. de la Garza

Making Sense of the Constitution: A Primer on the Supreme Court and Its Struggle to Apply Our Fundamental Law, Walter M. Frank
Reviewed by JETHRO LIEBERMAN

A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran, Trita Parsi
Reviewed by BRENT E. SASLEY

Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy, Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Michael E. O’Hanlon and Martin S. Indyk
Reviewed by Meena Bose

Politics and the Twitter Revolution: How Tweets Influence the Relationship between Political Leaders and the Public, John H. Pamelee and Shannon L. Bichard
Reviewed by BRIGITTE L. NACOS

Borders among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France, Sarah S. Stroup
Reviewed by CLAUDE WELCH

Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation, Amanda Porterfield
Reviewed by JEFFREY SIKKENGA

Congressional Parties, Institutional Ambition, and the Financing of Majority Control, Eric S. Heberlig and Bruce A. Larson
Reviewed by ADAM ZELIZER

Financing Failure: A Century of Bailouts, Vern McKinley
Reviewed by LLOYD B. THOMAS

Nixon’s Court: His Challenge to Judicial Liberalism and Its Political Consequences, Kevin J. McMahon
Reviewed by Matthew J. Dickinson

Plessy v. Ferguson: Race and Inequality in Jim Crow America, Williamjames Hull Hoffer
Reviewed by LELAND WARE

Poverty in Common: The Politics of Community Action during the American Century, Alyosha Goldstein
Reviewed by Rose Ernst

China or Japan: Which Will Lead Asia?, Claude Meyer
Reviewed by MICHAEL BECKLEY

Sustaining China’s Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis, Nicholas R. Lardy
Reviewed by ERIC WARNER

Taking the Fight to the Enemy: Neoconservatism and the Age of Ideology, Adam L. Fuller
Reviewed by C. BRADLEY THOMPSON

The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality, Thomas Borstelmann
Reviewed by Jeffery A. Jenkins

The FBI’s Obscene File: J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau’s Crusade against Smut, Douglas M. Charles
Reviewed by MATTHEW CECIL

The Immigration Crucible: Transforming Race, Nation, and the Limits of the Law, Philip Kretsedemas
Reviewed by DORIS M. PROVINE

The New Black Politician: Cory Booker, Newark, and Post-Racial America, Andra Gillespie
Reviewed by Christina M. Greer

The Not-So-Special Interests: Interest Groups, Public Representation, and American Governance, Matt Grossmann
Reviewed by William Crotty

The Tea Party: A Brief History, Ronald P. Formisano
Reviewed by DANIEL DISALVO

The Third Lie: Why Government Programs Don’t Work—and a Blueprint for Change, Richard J. Gelles
Reviewed by Robert P. Stoker

The World Health Organization between North and South, Nitsan Chorev
Reviewed by BENJAMIN M. MEIER

When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama, Tyson D. King‐Meadows
Reviewed by Charles S. Bullock III