Election Day 2024 is Tuesday, November 5th, 2024. If you're planning to vote on Election Day, you can find your polling place from the State Secretary's website. If you voted by mail, you can also track your ballot online to make sure it was counted. And if you're all set with this year's election, you can check out these nonfiction books about notable elections in American history.
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American political parties and elections: A Very Short Introduction
by Maisel, Louis Sandy American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction examines the electoral process in the United States and explains why it is widely misunderstood. Why is participation in elections so much lower in the United States than in other mature democracies? What role do the political parties play in the electoral process? And why do unregulated groups such as 527 advocacy organizations have as much, if not more, influence than candidates' campaign organizations? This VSI examines these and other issues to provide an insider's view of how the system actually works and why there remain only two main political parties, despite the fact that many citizens claim allegiance to neither and think badly of both. |
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Camelot's End
by Ward, Jon Draws on interviews with major political leaders in an account of Ted Kennedy's 1980 campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination from incumbent Jimmy Carter that discusses how their rivalry reflected significant party changes. |
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The carnival campaign
by Shafer, Ronald G Pulitzer-nominated journalist Shafer digs deep to find the seeds of the modern election cycle in the colorful battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a longstanding member of the New York Democratic machine, and upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who earned the nickname “Old Tippecanoe” from a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. "Shafer makes his readers feel that we are not alone—not the first, and sadly, not the last to be bamboozled."—Kirkus. |
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Dewey defeats Truman
by Baime, A. J. A look at the 1948 election pitting incumbent president Harry Trump against New York governor Thomas Dewey, which took place against momentous international events including the emerging Cold War. |
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Down for the count
by Gumbel, Andrew Down for the Count explores in an accessible, engaging style the tawdry continuing history of votes bought, stolen, suppressed, lost, miscounted, thrown into rivers, and litigated up to the Supreme Court in the world's most powerful democracy. First published to great acclaim and controversy in 2005 as Steal this Vote, this thoroughly revised edition lifts the lid off the largely undiscussed corruption at the core of our democracy-elections so poorly regulated and administered they fall short of standards the United States routinely imposes on emerging democracies. The problem has only grown worse in the last decade, as campaign spending has gone hog wild, partisan battles rage over voter ID, and a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has been shredded. As award-winning journalist Andrew Gumbel shows, we need proper oversight and regulation of elections, reliable voting machines, and a keener understanding of where private interests infringe on the public good. Now that Citizens United, super PACs, and the Koch brothers have turned the electoral process into an increasingly squalid lottery for billionaires, there is no better time for Gumbel's revision of his acclaimed book. |
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The first modern campaign
by Donaldson, Gary In this engaging book, Gary A. Donaldson tells the story of Kennedy versus Nixon with a sharp eye for the salient political developments and a keen sense of the drama of an election that was unlike any other the nation had experienced. The election of 1960 was also an orchestrated political drama, organized as a sweeping campaign from coast to coast and staged for a national television audience. This made it the first modern campaign in which the television media changed the dynamics of presidential politics and in which photographs, charisma, and direct appeals to voters counted as they had never done before. It was also an election of intense personal rivalry made all the more spirited by the prejudice against Kennedy's Catholicism and his intention to widen the American political arena. |
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Founding rivals
by DeRose, Chris Explores how the 1789 congressional election between two future presidents with differing views on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights influenced the destiny of the United States. |
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Game change
by Heilemann, John Two journalists offer the gripping inside story of the 2008 race for the White House, explaining the reasons behind the rise of Barack Obama, the breakdown of Hilary Clinton's campaign, McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for a running mate and Palin's widespread, yet polarizing, appeal. |
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I like Ike
by Greene, John Robert In the first book to analyze the 1952 election in its entirety, political historian John Robert Greene looks in detail at how Stevenson and Eisenhower faced demands that they run for an office neither originally wanted. He examines the campaigns of their opponents--Harry Truman and Robert Taft, but also Estes Kefauver, Richard B. Russell, Averell Harriman and Earl Warren. Richard Nixon's famous "Checkers Speech," Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign, and television as a new medium for news and political commercials--each figured in the election in its own way; and drawing in depth on the Eisenhower, Stevenson, Taft and Nixon papers, Greene traces how. I Like Ike is a compelling account of how an America fearful of a Communist threat elected a war hero and brought an end to twenty years of Democrat control of the White House. In an era of political ferment, it also makes a timely and persuasive case for the importance of the election of 1952 not only to the Eisenhower Administration, but also to the development of presidential politics well into the future. |
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The Lincoln miracle
by Achorn, Edward Bringing to life arguably the most consequential political story in America's history, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Commentary chronicles Abraham Lincoln's nomination to lead the Republican Party in the 1860 presidential election, showing how a seemingly impossible long shot prevailed to the nation's benefit. |
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The men and the moment
by Goudsouzian, Aram "The author of ""Down to the Crossroads"" presents a character-driven narrative history of the presidential election of 1968 to reveal its indelible impact on American politics, citing key transformations in political machines, party-boss nominations, grassroots participation and the use of ""hot-button"" issues." |
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The road to Camelot
by Oliphant, Thomas A behind-the-scenes account of the 35th President's journey to the White House includes coverage of his failed vice presidential nomination in 1956, the ways his Catholic faith challenged his campaigns and the successful efforts of his team of young advisors to reinvent the traditional party. |
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Roosevelt sweeps nation
by Pietrusza, David In this vivid portrait of a dynamic Depression-Era America, an award-winning historian presents the surprising tale of America's most complex, calculating and politically successful president, revealing how our society, our politics and our parties fitfully reinvented themselves. |
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The triumph of William McKinley
by Rove, Karl The political advisor and best-selling author of Courage and Consequence offers a reassessment of the 25th president's election that explores its role in ending a period of bitter political gridlock and reforming his party to create a governing majority that dominated politics for subsequent decades. Illustrations. |
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The year that broke politics
by Nichter, Luke A. The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between vice president Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and former Alabama governor George Wallace. The United States was reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and was bitterly divided on the Vietnam War and domestic issues, including civil rights and rising crime. Drawing on previously unexamined archives and numerous interviews, Luke A. Nichter upends the conventional understanding of the campaign. Nichter chronicles how the evangelist Billy Graham met with Johnson after the president's attempt to reenter the race was stymied by his own party, and offered him a deal: Nixon, if elected, would continue Johnson's Vietnam War policy and also not oppose his Great Society, if Johnson would soften his support for Humphrey. Johnson agreed. Nichter also shows that Johnson was far more active in the campaign than has previously been described; that Humphrey's resurgence in October had nothing to do with hischanging his position on the war; that Nixon's "Southern Strategy" has been misunderstood, since he hardly even campaigned there; and that Wallace's appeal went far beyond the South and anticipated today's Republican populism. |