"a food fight between the humanities and the social sciences"

"The scholarly food fight over how to define the lunch pail class and what Democrats can do to win back their affections - if, that is, they ever lost them"

Again with the Thomas Frank... Sunday's Boston Globe had a piece by Christopher Shea called "Who are you calling working class?" in which he talks about the ongoing faceoff between Tom Frank and Larry Bartels (pictured) over who exactly constitutes the working class in America, and whether the Democrats have really lost a substantial segment of them to the Republicans.

For your convenience, links to some supporting material:

• Larry Bartels' Sept '05 APSA paper [PDF format]: "What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter with Kansas?"
• Bartels' further comments in The Daily Princetonian, Oct 19/05: "Bartels attacks book on red states"
• Tom Frank's response [PDF format]: "Class is Dismissed"