The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present

by Allan J. Lichtman

The New York Times bestselling author of The Case for Impeachment shows that gerrymandering and voter suppression have a long history.

“Lichtman’s important book…uses history to contextualize the fix we’re in today. Each party gropes for advantage by fiddling with the franchise… Growing outrage, he thinks, could ignite demands for change. With luck, this fine history might just help to fan the flame.”― New York Times Book Review

Americans have fought and died for the right to vote. Yet the world’s oldest continuously operating democracy guarantees no one, not even its citizens, the right to elect its leaders.

For most of U.S. history, suffrage has been a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. Economic qualifications were finally eliminated in the nineteenth century, but the ideal of a white man’s republic persisted long after that. Today, voter identification laws, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of American citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box.

An award-winning historian who has testified in more than ninety voting rights cases, Allan Lichtman gives us the deep history behind today’s headlines and shows that calls of voter fraud, political gerrymandering and outrageous attempts at voter suppression are nothing new. The players and the tactics have changed―we don’t outright ban people from voting anymore―but the battle and the stakes remain just as high.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, American History, Audiobook, Law, Social Justice

336 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2018

About the author

Allan J. Lichtman is Distinguished Professor of History at The American University in Washington, D.C. and the author of many acclaimed books on U.S. political history, including White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement (finalist, 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Non-fiction), FDR and the Jews (with Richard Breitman), and The Case for Impeachment.

Professor Lichtman devised a model (“Keys to the White House”) with Vladimir Keilis-Borok to predict the outcome of US presidential elections; said model has been correct since 1984. He is regularly sought out by the media for his authoritative views on voting and elections.

Reviews

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the American democratic experiment at a precarious moment, Allan J. Lichtman’s The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present is a timely and important book. Neither Hillary nor Trump received as many votes as Nobody, the choice of all the millions of people who stayed home. This undercuts the legitimacy of government, yet many in government make concerted efforts to prevent people from voting.

Lichtman traces the history of American suffrage from our founders choosing to leave voting decisions to the states and the states established all sorts of different standards. After the Civil War, African American men won the vote, though states crafted rules to keep them from exercising it. Fifty-six years later, women won the right to vote. In 1971, voting age was lowered to 18, recognizing that young people were dying in a war started by politicians they could not vote for or against. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed to make good on the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment. Since the Voting Rights Act, there has been a constant struggle on the part of the Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters through various schemes and corresponding energy from Democrats to expand the franchise and legally combat the voter suppression efforts of Republicans.

How are votes suppressed? Gerrymandering lets politicians choose their voters so voters feel their votes make no difference. States pass laws taking the right to vote away from felons, not just while they’re in prison, but also while on parole, and permanently in some states, so a person’s right to vote can depend on where they live. Closing polling places so voters wait in long lines is a huge burden. In Arizona, some polling places served 21,000 voters! Shortening early voting, restricting voter registration and requiring burdensome ID requirements also function to reduce voter participation.

Lichtman reviews the several methods of expanding or restricting participation. He also examines the canard of voter fraud, exposing it as a two-pronged effort to decrease confidence in our electoral system which reduces participation and provides a rationale for policies that make it harder minoritized voters to vote.


This is an excellent review of the history of voting reforms, good and bad. It is full of the details that make a history interesting with examples of different politicians making their arguments, some blatantly and proudly racist. It covers the voting wars up to mid-2018 and proposes reforms for the future. I get so irritated by books that are full of the problem and have no solutions. There are solutions and Lichtman looks at them carefully.

Lichtman’s writing is clear and lively. He has an opinion and isn’t afraid to share it. This makes for an interesting book even though it’s maddening to read about legislators researching exactly how best to keep Black people from voting and justifying it as being not racist because they only tried to disenfranchise Blacks because they’re Democrats, not because they’re Black.

I highly recommend The Embattled Vote in America and there could not be a more important time to read it.

I received a copy of The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present for review from Harvard University Press.

The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present at Harvard University Press

Allan J. Lichtman faculty site. Also on Twitter. Site for his book “The Case for Impeachment“

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the US, we often talk about how the vote is sacred and about how committed we all are to democracy. But as Allan Lichtman reminds us in The Embattled Vote in America, history is far more complicated. Although the right to vote has been enshrined in more recent constitutions around the world, in the American one, it remains a negative right, not a positive right: the vote *cannot be denied* for certain reasons, but it is never *guaranteed*. And this has to do with the dynamics of power and prejudice, especially around race, gender, property, and nativity. Lichtman surveys the various efforts to expand and constrain the franchise and calls on us to truly commit to the policies that would make a right to vote meaningful for all.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lichtman traces the history of voting rights and the lack thereof from the founding of the US until the present day. He also shines a light on the many different forms of voter suppression and other problems that continue to play a major role in why US politics is such an unholy mess, and what can be done to fix them. Interesting and very well written.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional book that clearly illustrates the problems threatening the vote in America and addresses solutions to it. This book should be required reading for young people entering into the voting world.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Don't even know where to start describing how powerful and jaw-dropping this book is. Thinking of myself as fairly well-educated in history and politics in general, and in gender and racial justice issues in particular--especially when it comes to voting--I was astounded by how much history I didn't know. The wording of all of the most important "voting rights" amendments to our constitution, for example...NOT ONE of them actually gives any of us as citizens of the United States an actual "right" to vote! It indicates what cannot be done by states in the voting process but does not make clear a constitutional right. The deference to states with regard to election laws: closing polling places, requiring voter IDs, all manner of attempts to suppress votes--all that began with the original framers of the constitution and became more insidious post-Reconstruction; after the Civil War SCOTUS essentially paved the way for white supremacy vigilantism. If you're wondering how black voter suppression and other acts of disenfranchisement can still be possible, take a read of The Embattled Vote in America. For me, I'll never look at the political landscape the same!

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The right to vote is not contained in the Constitution or in the Amendments. Every state makes its own rules. There are an astonishing number of stratagems for voter suppression. I highly recommend reading this historical grounding about how we got to where we are -- needing to fix it!

Footnote: Sample facts from my state, Minnesota: Native Americans did not get the vote until 1960. Minnesota was one of the first states to allow same day registration. A Paul Wellstone quote closes the book. "When too many Americans don't vote or participate, some see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration can come hope and action."

Let's act.

[George Stenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that covers in detail the struggles to vote and the roadblocks that the individual states create to limit the turnout of groups that normally vote for the opposing to the party in power. Frequently it is a type of racial profiling, but it goes beyond that.

It reminded me of the aftermath of the Civil War, when the decision-making was returned to the states and the result was Jim Crow laws and little if any change, for the Black Americans.

He also provided a wealth of details that demonstrate the miniscule amount of voter fraud although currently a large percent of the population believes that voter fraud is prevalent. This deteriorates the trusts in our democracy.

A very relevant book. I will suggest this to some of my book clubs.

Highly recommended.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good detailed history of voting in America. A bit dry at times but some very interesting facts. Who knew that the US constitution does not include the right to vote? Or that some African-Americans voted in American elections in the 1700s, then lost their voting rights in the early 1800s, then started voting again after the Civil War in the 1860s, then lost their rights in the later 1800s, then started voting again in the 1960s and are currently slowly losing their rights again, at least in some of the southern states. The US used to be a beacon of democracy - now it's more of a farce.

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it quite depressing that voter suppression (like racism, for that matter) was baked into the United States. It started at the nation's founding and continues in less obvious ways today. I learned a lot from this book, but this knowledge comes at a cost. We have to be constantly vigilant about our elected officials, which can be exhausting.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview on the ways that people in the United States have been stopped from voting. It also offers suggestions ranging from Amendment (unlikely) to smaller reforms (Full enforcement of the Voter registration Act) that could increase voter turn out and move us back to a full Democracy with less blatant partisan interference.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It turns out that a defining thread in American political history is the recurring phenomenon whereby any attempt to expand suffrage in the United States is immediately countered with baseless claims of voting fraud: it happened in the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, and of course, in our own day.

[Loren Shultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history and things we all need to know regarding voting and voter suppression.

[Erica Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is important. Read it. Think about what you can do to help fix the problems - they are very real and very much present.

[Joelle Boudreaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be required reading for every young adult!

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, but very dry presentation.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory reading!

[Nate Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of voting rights battles in the US. Written by a voting and gerrymandering expert witness. Written before the 2020 election and big lie of voter fraud

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

[James Uscroft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never understood how America can have the audacity to describe itself as "The Beacon Of Democracy" when, as this book explains in detail, its multiple electoral systems have always been built upon the powerful's fear of letting the stinking plebs have 'Too Much Democracy.' And nowadays, many Americans still whole-heartedly defend their nation's archaic, byzantine and actively hostile election systems, along with the deliberate disenfranchisement of countless citizens by insisting that "America Is A Republic, Not A Democracy." Which nowadays, is almost always code for "We never should have let women and negroes have the vote."

As a matter of fact, as this book also explains (and I can't believe I didn't realise before,) America is one of the only self-proclaimed 'Democracies' in the world with a written constitution which doesn't guarantee the right to vote. And even before Republicans became openly Fascist and welcomed electoral interference from the Russian Federation, as long as it helped them win, even Britain was ten places higher on the world Democracy rankings... And We Still Have A Monarch Who Has The Power To Dissolve The Government & Rule By Decree!

Of course, no British monarch would ever use that power for fear of being beheaded like their predecessor. But in America though, the Democrats in particular seem to live in mortal fear of hurting Fascists' feelings; still clinging to the naïve fantasy that "if only we let the Fascists have everything they want, then eventually they'll get bored." And in the end, this is the reason why I only give this book four stars. Because in the final chapter when he's detailing possible electoral reforms, the author always seems to shrug as he sighs 'But The Republicans Would Never Support This' while proposing the most banal and tepid procedural changes imaginable. Including making Voting Day a Federal Holiday and serving drinks because it would create a greater spirit of community, not because countless voters can't afford to take time off work to vote! So if you want an in depth diagnosis of exactly what's wrong with American *Democracy, then I highly recommend this book. But if you're looking for a prescription, for actual solutions as we look forward with nervous terror to the next violent, Fascist insurrection in 2024, then you need to look elsewhere.