Introduction: America at war -- Historical perspective -- Public opinion and war: a historical perspective -- The myths and meaning of public opinion and World War II -- The structure of support for war -- The calculation of costs: an innocent public -- Partisan structure of war support: events, elites, and the public -- Ethnic groups: attachments, enmities, and support for war -- Public opinion and war: back to the water's edge -- Civil liberties and war -- Elections during wartime -- Conclusions -- Appendix A: description of data and weighting -- Appendix B: Iraq war casualty survey analysis -- Appendix C: congressional record content analysis -- Appendix D: statistical significance of ethnic variables -- Appendix E: relationship between support for war and support for restricting civil liberties -- Appendix F: NES analysis of retrospective war support.