Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Senators on the Campaign Trail: The Politics of Representation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.), ix + 375 pp.; ISBN 0-8061-3062-8 (paper).

Richard Fenno’s latest work on the political behavior of U.S. Senators is in many ways a sequel to Homestyle, his classic study of House members published in the late 1970s. As with Fenno’s previous work, Senators on the Campaign Trail examines the ways in which senators interact with, and are responsive to, their constituents. Unlike Homestyle, however which focused mostly on how House members behaved in their districts between elections, Fenno’s most recent work concentrates on senators’ campaign activity. Despite these differences Senators on the Campaign Trail will inevitably be compared to Homestyle. Although lacking some of the theoretical significance of its predecessor, Senators on the Campaign Trail provides an excellent and frequently neglected perspective on the importance of candidates and campaigns to the representative process.