In Race, Class, and Social Welfare: American Populism Since the New Deal (Cambridge University Press, July 2020), Professor Erik Engstrom and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Robert Huckfeldt — both in the political science department — examine the racial divisions that have fractured the potential for a unified progressive populist movement in the United States.

Professor Erik Engstrom specializes in the study of the U.S. Congress, political parties, and American political development. He is the author of four books: The Politics of Ballot Design (with Jason M. Roberts, 2021, Cambridge), Race, Class, and Social Welfare (with Robert Huckfeldt, 2020, Cambridge), Partisan Gerrymandering and the Construction of American Democracy (2013, Michigan) and Party Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America’s Electoral System (with Samuel Kernell, 2014, Cambridge, 2015 Winner of the J. David Greenstone Prize). His research articles have appeared in leading political science journals, including the American Political Science Review and the American Journal of Political Science. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation. He served as the UC Davis Department Chair from 2017 to 2021. Prior to joining UC Davis in 2008 he served as a faculty member for five years at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

Professor Robert Huckfeldt received his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the past president of the Midwest Political Science Association; past chair of the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section of the American Political Science Association; and the past president of the Political Networks Section of the American Political Science Association. He has served in a number of administrative roles, including political science department chair at Indiana University and UC Davis, and director of the UC Center Sacramento and the UC Davis Institute for Governmental Affairs. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

View the book at the Cambridge University Press