America's Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception.By Wayne E. Baker. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.328p. $18.95.

Wayne Baker's America's Crisis of Values: Reality andPerception offers a recent addition to a growingliterature in political science that examines the perception and,perhaps, reality of the polarization of American politics aroundcultural and moral issues. In this book, Baker sets out to providean empirical examination of three aspects of America's perceivedcrisis of values. The first of these is the trend hypothesis: Inrecent decades, America has experienced a significant decline in itscommitment to traditional moral values. The second is the comparisonhypothesis: Moral values in the United States have declined relativeto most other nations. Third and finally is the distributionhypothesis: Americans have become increasingly polarized in theircommitment to traditional moral values.

Major questions remain about the extent and political significance of White racial attitudes. In this paper, we examine an alternative source of data on racial attitudes—actual voting on the purely symbolic repeal of antimiscegenation referenda. By applying cross-level (ecological) inference methods to this unique data, we find, surprisingly, that White voting behavior differs dramatically from what would be predicted based on previous survey research on public and private attitudes.

Debates over displays of the Confederate flag have roiled Southern politics in recent years. Opponents of the flag view it is a symbol of slavery and Jim Crow, and consequently an insult to black Americans and evidence of the refusal of many Southerners to let go of an inglorious past. Supporters of the flag, however, argue that the flag today has no linkage with slavery or Jim Crow, but instead symbolizes Southern heritage and tradition.