Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:29:28.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reflections: The Michigan Four and Their Study of American Voters: A Biography of a Collaboration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2016

Herbert F. Weisberg
Herbert F. Weisberg*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The publication of The American Voter in 1960 revolutionized the study of American voting behavior. Its University of Michigan authors, Angus Campbell, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, were to share thousands of citations, but they were four different people, with different backgrounds, different personalities, and different career trajectories afterwards. This paper presents a chronological biography of The American Voter, from assembling the research team, through writing the book, to its aftermath, and ending with brief perspectives on each author.

Type
Articles
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 49 , Special Issue 4: Elections in Focus , October 2016 , pp. 845 - 858
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

“12-Year Voter Study Indicates Democratic Victory in the Fall: 4 at U. of Michigan Find Party’s Majority Intact After 2 Eisenhower Terms – Statistics Point to the Catholic Bloc,” New York Times, 8 May 1960, 51.Google Scholar
Achen, Christopher H. 2000. “Warren Miller and the Future of Data Analysis.” Political Analysis 8 (2): 142–46.Google Scholar
Belknap, George M. and Campbell, Angus. 1951–1952. “Political Party Identification and Attitudes toward Foreign Policy.” Public Opinion Quarterly 15 (4): 601–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berelson, Bernard R., Lazarsfeld, Paul F., and McPhee, William N.. 1954. Voting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bower, Robert T. 1954. [Review of the book The Voter Decides]. American Sociological Review 19 (6): 786–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodbeck, Arthur J. 1959. “The Principles of Permanence and Change.” In American Voting Behavior, ed. Burdick, Eugene and Brodbeck, Arthur J., 414–36. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Burns, Nancy. 2006. The Michigan, then National, then American National Election Studies. <https://www.isr.umich.edu/cps/ANES_history.pdf>. Accessed 10 March 2015..+Accessed+10+March+2015.>Google Scholar
Butler, David and Stokes, Donald E.. 1969. Political Change in Britain. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E.. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E.. 1966. Elections and the Political Order. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus and Cooper, Homer C.. 1956. Group Differences in Attitudes and Votes. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Gurin, Gerald, and Miller, Warren E.. 1953. “Political Issues and the Vote, November 1952.” American Political Science Review 47 (2): 359–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Gurin, Gerald, and Miller, Warren E.. 1954. The Voter Decides. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson and Company.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus and Kahn, Robert L.. 1952. The People Elect a President. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Survey Research Series #9.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus and Stokes, Donald E.. 1959. “Partisan Attitudes and the Presidential Vote.” In American Voting Behavior, ed. Burdick, Eugene and Brodbeck, Arthur J., 353–71. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Bruce A. 1979. The American Electorate: Attitudes and Actions. New York: Holt McDougal.Google Scholar
Converse, Jean M. 1987. Survey Research in the United States: Roots and Emergence, 1890–1960. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Converse, Jean M. and Schuman, Howard. 1974. Conversations at Random: Survey Research as Interviewers See It. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1958. “The Shifting Role of Class in Political Attitudes and Behavior.” In Readings in Social Psychology, ed. Macoby, Eleanor E., Newcomb, Theodore M., and Hartley, Eugene L., 388–99. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1964. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” In Ideology and Discontent, ed. Apter, David E., 206–61. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1991. Oral history, interviewed by Richard Brody. Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. Accession Numbers 1991OH150 APSA 074 (2 May), 1991OH151 APSA 075 (23 May), 1991OH152 APSA 076 (6 June). All cites are to the 2 May tape.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 1999. “Warren Miller Remembered.” ICPSR Bulletin 19 (3): 6.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. 2006. “Researching Electoral Politics.” American Political Science Review 100 (4): 605–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, Philip E. and Pierce, Roy. 1986. Political Representation in France. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coombs, Clyde H. 1987. “Angus Campbell, 1910–1980: A Biographical Memoir.” Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1961. “The Behavioral Approach in Political Science.” American Political Science Review 55 (4): 763–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Edelman, Murray. 1961. [Review of the book The American Voter]. Midwest Journal of Political Science 5 (1): 84–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eulau, Heinz. 1960. [Review of the book The American Voter]. American Political Science Review 54 (4): 993–94.Google Scholar
Friedman, Robert S. and Stokes, Sybil L.. 1965. “The Role of Constitution-Maker as Representative.” Midwest Journal of Political Science 9 (2): 148–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glantz, Oscar. 1961. [Review of the book The American Voter]. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 336 (July): 175–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, David. 1958. [Review of the book Group Differences in Attitudes and Votes.] American Journal of Sociology 64 (2): 215–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosnell, Harold F. 1927. Getting Out the Vote. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Morris H. and Hauser, Philip M.. 1945. “Area Sampling—Some Principles of Sample Design.” Public Opinion Quarterly 9 (2): 183–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Joseph P. 1955. [Review of the book The Voter Decides]. American Political Science Review 49 (1): 225–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauptmann, Emily. 2011. “The Development of Philanthropic Interest in the Scientific Study of Political Behavior.” Sleepy Hollow, NY: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY. http://www.rockarch.org/publications/resrep/hauptmann.pdf. Accessed 16 April 2014.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, Emily. 2016a. “’Propagandists for the Behavioral Sciences’: The Overlooked Partnership between the Carnegie Corporation and SSRC in the Mid-twentieth Century.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 52 (2): 167–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauptmann, Emily. 2016b. “The New Ethics and Economics of Sharing Data in Mid-20th Century Social Science.” Paper presented at the meetings of the International Political Science Association. 23–28 July, Poznan, Poland.Google Scholar
Heard, Alexander. 1949. “Research on Political Behavior: Report of a Conference.” Items 3 (4): 41–44, published by the Social Science Research Council in New York City.Google Scholar
Jackson, John E. and Saxonhouse, Arlene W.. 2014. “Not Your Great-Grandfather’s Department.” https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/polisci-assets/Docs/Political%20Science%20Department%20History%202014June.pdf. Accessed 3 July 2015.Google Scholar
Janowitz, Morris and Miller, Warren E.. 1952. “The Index of Political Predisposition in the 1948 Election.” Journal of Politics 14 (4): 710–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Ruth S. and Miller, Warren E.. 1984. “State Polls: Promising Data Sources for Political Research.” Journal of Politics 46 (4): 1182–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Ruth S. and Miller, Warren E.. 1985. “Financing Campaigns: Macro Level Innovation and Micro Level Response.” Western Political Quarterly 38 (2): 187–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Robert L. 1981. “Obituary: Angus Campbell (1910–1980).” American Psychologist 36 (11): 1450–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr. 1960. “The Politically Relevant in Surveys.” Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (1): 54–61.Google Scholar
Korchin, Sheldon J. 1946. Psychological Variables in the Behavior of Voters. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Berelson, Bernard, and Gaudet, Hazel. 1944. The People’s Choice. New York: Duell Sloan and Pierce.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1960. “The University of Michigan Graduate Degree Program in Political Behavior.” Political Research: Organization and Design 3 (7): 23–24.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1988. Oral history, interviewed by Heinz Eulau. Louis B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. Accession Numbers 1988OH045 APSA 030 (11 Feb.), 1988OH46 APSA 031 (12 Feb.), 1988OH045 APSA 032 (13 Feb.). All citations are to the 11 Feb. tape.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1989. “Research Life as a Collection of Intersecting Probability Distributions.” In Crossroads of Social Sciences, ed. Eulau, Heinz, 147–60. New York: Agathon Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1991. Warren E. Miller interview by Heinz Eulau. In Baer, Michael A., Jewell, Malcolm E., and Sigelman, Lee, ed. Political Science in America: Oral Histories of a Discipline. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 1994. “An Organizational History of the Intellectual Origins of the American National Election Studies.” European Journal of Political Research 25 (3): 247–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Warren E. 2000. “Temporal Order and Causal Inference.” Political Analysis 8 (2): 119–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Warren E. and Merrill Shanks, J.. 1996. The New American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mosteller, Frederick, et al. 1949. The Pre-Election Polls of 1948. New York: Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Neyman, Jerzy. 1934. “On the Two Different Aspects of the Representative Method: The Method of Stratified Sampling and the Method of Purposive Selection.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 97: 558–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney, and Petrocik, John. 1979. The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odegard, Peter H. 1960. [Review of the book The American Voter]. Science, New Series 132 (3420): 138–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, James K. 1939. Voting Behavior: A Case Study. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Rice, Stuart A. 1928. Quantitative Methods in Politics. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Rossi, Peter H. 1959. “Four Landmarks in Voting Research.” In American Voting Behavior, ed. Burdick, Eugene and Brodbeck, Arthur J., 5–54. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Smith, M. Brewster. 1961. [Review of the book The American Voter]. American Journal of Psychology 74 (4): 648–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Star, Shirley A. 1953. [Review of the book The People Elect a President]. American Journal of Sociology 59 (3): 284–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, Donald E., Campbell, Angus, and Miller, Warren E.. 1958. “Components of Electoral Decision.” American Political Science Review 52 (2): 367–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, Donald E. and Dilulio, John J. Jr. 1993. “The Setting: Valence Politics in Modern Elections.” In The Elections of 1992, ed. Nelson, Michael, 1–20. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Stouffer, Samuel A., Suchman, Edward A., DeVinney, Leland C., Star, Shirley A., and Williams, Robin M. Jr. 1949. Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Thurstone, Louis. 1928. “Attitudes Can Be Measured.” American Journal of Sociology 33 (4): 529–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titus, Charles H. 1953. [Review of the book The People Elect a President]. Western Political Quarterly 6 (1): 193–94.Google Scholar
Wahl, Charles W. 1959. “The Relation between Primary and Secondary Identifications.” In American Voting Behavior, ed. Burdick, Eugene and Brodbeck, Arthur J., 262–80. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wahl, J. Richard. 1956. [Review of the book The Voter Decides]. American Journal of Sociology 61 (5): 495–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisberg, Herbert F. 1983. “Philip E. Converse: An Intellectual History of the APSA President.” PS: Political Science & Politics 16 (Fall): 717–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisberg, Herbert F. 1987. “The Silver Summer: The ICPSR Summer Training Program’s 25th Anniversary.” PS: Political Science & Politics 20 (Spring): 281–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisberg, Herbert F., Macdonald, Stuart, and Rabinowitz, George. 1998. “Essays in Honor of Donald E. Stokes.” Electoral Studies 17 (3): 275–80.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Weisberg supplementary material

Weisberg supplementary material 1

Download Weisberg supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 135.4 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Weisberg supplementary material

Weisberg supplementary material 2

Download Weisberg supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 241.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Weisberg supplementary material

Weisberg supplementary material 3

Download Weisberg supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 23.6 MB

A correction has been issued for this article:

Errata