Political Bookshelf

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Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny
Theresa Amato
The New Press, 400 pages, $27.95

Theresa Amato launches a passionate defense of third-party campaigns in Illusion, bemoaning what she calls a “broken” and fundamentally unfair electoral system. Ralph Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, Amato devotes an entire chapter to her former boss, writing that Nader’s role as a spoiler in 2000 is “a national myth.” Amato offers a coherent case for reform and details the impossible task most independent and third-party candidates face. By September of 2004, Amato writes, the Nader campaign was in such dire straits, it was trolling the Internet in search of some goodwill from lawyers. From compliance to ballot access, she writes that we live in a “rigged democracy” and advocates for among other things the elimination of the Electoral College.
—Shane D’Aprile


The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1828
Lynn Hudson Parsons
Oxford, 272 pages, $24.95

In Birth, Lynn Parsons provides a detailed account of the campiagn between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams—one of the dirtiest in American history. From allegations over the legitimacy of Jackson’s marriage to the alleged misuse of public funds by Adams, the 1828 race was rife with mudslinging. More than that, writes Parsons, the contest marked the beginnings of modern campaign techniques. Everything from measuring public opinion to GOTV efforts was used in an early form.
—Elizabeth Abraham


Reforming the Presidential Nomination Process
Edited by Steven S. Smith and Melanie J. Springer
Brookings Institution Press, 205 pages, $19.95

The editors of this volume leave no stone unturned in recounting 2008’s primary contests. While much of the focus is on the prolonged Democratic nomination battle, several chapters examine the impact of endorsements, voter participation and media coverage on both the Democratic and Republican contests. William Mayer, known as one of the experts on the Democratic process, pens a chapter on superdelegates, in which he asserts that those much maligned participants exerted little to no impact on the Obama-Clinton showdown. And Brookings scholar Thomas Mann explores what sort of nominating process we might end up with if we could build a new one from scratch. Aside from its master-of-the-obvious title, the book offers a significant contribution to the growing reform debate.
—Shane D’Aprile