Presidential Elections, 1789-2008

Presidential Elections is an almanac of the popular vote in every presidential election in American history, analyzed at the county level with histories of each campaign, graphs, and stunning four-color maps. Most Americans are familiar with the crude red state/blue state maps used by commentators and campaign strategists—and even, for want of an alternative, by many academics. In providing a higher-resolution view of voting behavior the authors of this new volume enable examination of local and regional political trends that are invisible in state-level aggregations.

Presidential Elections will enable scholars to more subtly analyze voting behavior, campaigns, and presidential politics; commentators will use it to analyze trends and trace the historical evolution of new coalitions and voting blocs; strategists will use it to plan campaigns and mobilize constituencies. Presidential Elections will become the standard almanac on the subject: a required resource for academic and public libraries, as well as for scholars, consultants, and pundits nationwide.

Donald R. Deskins, Jr. is a political geographer and Emeritus Professor of Sociology and a former Associate Dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan.

Hanes Walton, Jr. was Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. He held positions as Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Political Studies and as a faculty member in the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies.

Sherman C. Puckett is a Ph.D. graduate of the University of Michigan in urban and regional planning. He was a mayoral appointee in the data processing department of the Coleman A. Young administration in the City of Detroit and recently retired from Wayne County government as manager of technology, geographic information systems, and development of maintenance management systems.

Praise / Awards

• "Hanes Walton, Donald Deskins, and Sherman Puckett have produced a highly impressive collection and valuable contribution to the literature on American Electoral Politics. This work is indispensable for academic libraries, political scientists, historians, and serious students of American Government."
  —Immanuel Ness, Professor, Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

• "Massive amounts of information about presidential elections which is not readily available elsewhere. Unprecedented coverage in one volume of every single American presidential election."
  —James Gimpel, Professor of Government, University of Maryland

• "This is an extraordinary research endeavor; the most comprehensive set of aggregate election data ever assembled. Painstakingly researched, this color-coded volume presents data for every presidential election from 1789 to 2008. Unlike most, the wide ranging narrative for this atlas identifies racial patterns in the vote. Everyone who studies or is interested in presidential elections should have this impressive collection of statistical data in their libraries. A visual gem for the digital age."
  —Robert Smith, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University

• "Presidential Elections, 1789-2008 is a genuine tour de force that captures in an extremely accessible and comprehensive way the electoral-geography of America's presidential elections, from Washington to Obama. An invaluable addition to the library of all those interested in presidential elections and U.S. politics."
  —Marion Orr, Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Brown University

• "This volume sets an extraordinarily high standard in scholarship, completeness, description and explanation of our political process. It has been said that all politics are local, but never before has this been demonstrated with such clarity and panache, using the simple method of standardized tables summarizing voting, then showing state and county breakdowns of the numbers, greatly strengthened by beautiful full color maps and cartograms. The authors have created a work of seminal importance, and a firm foundation on which to understand the politics of voting in the America yet to come. Every scholar of politics and democracy will benefit from the work laid out in this volume."
  —Keith Clarke, Professor of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara

• "This impressive work by Deskins, Walton, and Puckett combines a visually striking four-color represntation with a descriptive analysis of American presidential voting results at the national, state, and county level for every election from 1789 to 2008. ... Of particular value to researchs is the analysis of county-level changes in the electorate—material that is often difficult to find."
  —Choice (Highly Recommended)