The American Public Mind pursues the structure of policy preferences in the general public across the postwar years, along with the impact of this structure on electoral politics.

William J. M. Claggett is Associate Professor of Political Science at Florida State University. He is the author of The Two Majorities: The Issue Context of Modern American Politics, with Byron Shafer. He has also published numerous articles on public opinion and electoral behavior in leading academic journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics.

Part I. The Structure of Public Preferences: 1. The established issues: social welfare; 2. The established issues: international relations; 3. The new issues: civil rights; 4. The new issues: cultural values; 5. Blended items: true, false, and obscure; Part II. Some Consequences of the Structure: 6. The established issues: voting behavior; 7. The new issues: voting behavior; 8. Voting behavior: the rest of the story; 9. The issue structure of mass politics.