The Superpowers in the Middle East

RAMI GINAT. The Soviet Union and Egypt, 1945–1955. London: Frank Cass, dist. Portland, OR: ISBS, 1993. Pp. xii, 268. $45.00 (US);

ABRAHAM BEN-ZVL The United States and Israel: The Limits of the Special Relationship. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 312. $35.00 (US).     

Review Article: Hot War,Cold War,New War

STANLEY KARNOW. Vietnam, A History. New York: Penguin, 1984. Pp. xi, 752. $10.95 (US); GABRIEL KOLKO. Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, The United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Pp. xvi, 628. $25.00 (US); TIMOTHY J. LOMPERIS. The War Everyone Lost-and Won: America's Intervention in Vietnam's Twin Struggles. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1985. Pp. x, 192. $22.50 (US); R.B. SMITH. An International History of the Vietnam War: The Kennedy Strategy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. Pp. xii, 429. $25.00 (US); HARRY O. SUMMERS, Jr. On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War. New York: Dell, 1984. Pp. 288. $3.95 (US).     

Whose Approval Matters? Reelection,Constituency Approval,and Senate Support for President George W. Bush

Debate exists concerning the impact of presidential approval on congressional support for the president. One source of this debate is that while theory specifies an electoral connection, suggesting that legislators will be responsive to approval within their reelection constituency, most research employs national approval measures. Lack of constituency-level data has forced studies to use national measures of approval, but in as much as national and district level approval differ, national approval will not provide quality estimates of district opinion on the president. This article uses SurveyUSA data from 2005–2006, which provide state-level estimates for approval as well as breakdowns by partisanship (Democrats, Republicans, Independent). Analysis finds that, with controls, state-level approval has a statistically significant, albeit marginal, impact on senator support for the president. Stronger effects on support are found for approval from the senators’ reelection constituency, defined as voters of the senators’ party. These findings suggest directions for future research.     

Fieldwork as cultural process

Butler, Barbara, and Diane Michalski Turner, eds. Children and Anthropological Research. New York and London: Plenum Press, 1987. xi + 161 pp. including chapter references and author and subject indices. $39.50 cloth.

Friedrich, Paul. The Princes of Naranja: An Essay in Anthrohistorical Method. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. xx + 305 pp. including appendices and notes. $29.95 cloth, $12.95 paper.

Alverson, Marianne. Under African Sun. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. xiii + 233 pp. including photographs and glossary. $19.95 cloth.     

Obstacles to utopia

Stanley R. Ingman and Anthony E. Thomas, eds. Topias and Utopias in Health: Policy Studies. The Hague and Paris: Mouton Publishers, 1975. Distributed in North America by Aldine Publishing Company, ix + 548 pp. Tables, biographical notes, and indices. $24.50.