The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker

In a small corner of political science, scholars venture out into the world to talk with “real people” in depth and detail about how they think about political issues of the day. A foundation stone for this work is Robert E. Lane's Political Ideology: Why the American Common Man Believes What He Does (1962). Lane is not exactly a marginal figure—Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale, a past president of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The APSA hands out an annual award in his honor for the best book in political psychology. Still, few political scientists have followed his lead. One of the rare exceptions has now fortuitously come to general attention. University of Wisconsin…