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

by Allan J. Lichtman

Overview

“A sweeping look at the history of voting rights in the U.S.”—Vox

Who has the right to vote? And who benefits from exclusion?

For most of American history, the right to vote has been a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, and literacy. Economic qualifications were finally eliminated in the nineteenth century, but the ideal of a white man’s republic persisted long after that. Women and racial minorities had to fight hard and creatively to secure their voice, but voter identification laws, registration requirements, and voter purges continue to prevent millions of American citizens from voting.

An award-winning historian and voting right activist, Allan Lichtman gives us the history behind today’s headlines. He shows that political gerrymandering and outrageous attempts at voter suppression have been a fixture of American democracy—but so have efforts to fight back and ensure that every citizen’s voice be heard.

“Lichtman 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

“The great value of Lichtman’s book is the way it puts today’s right-wing voter suppression efforts in their historical setting. He identifies the current push as the third crackdown on African-American voting rights in our history.”
—Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674244818
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Allan J. Lichtman is Distinguished Professor of History at American University and the author of many acclaimed books on U.S. political history, including White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, FDR and the Jews (with Richard Breitman), and The Case for Impeachment. He is regularly sought out by the media for his authoritative views on voting and elections.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction: Voters and Nonvoters 1

1 The Founding Fathers' Mistake 8

2 A White Man's Republic 36

3 Constructing and Deconstructing the Vote 70

4 Votes for Women 99

5 The Absent Voter 128

6 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 147

7 The New Wars over the Vote 180

8 Reforming American Voting 231

Conclusion: The Embattled Vote 252

Notes 259

Acknowledgments 303

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

Most compelling is the author’s extensive experience in voting rights cases over the last four decades, providing first-hand accounts of the ongoing battles to attain a voice in our democracy. His book is a call to arms and a must-read for any American interested in protecting our most fundamental right, the right to vote.

J. Gerald Hebert

[A] sweeping history of the country’s ensuing struggles over voting rights…Provides ample historical and contemporary justifications for [his] policy prescriptions to ensure that American democracy remains credible and viable in the twenty-first century.

Journal of Southern History - Scott J. Spitzer

An important and timely work…Provides a general audience with historical context to improve public understanding of current voting rights controversies…Anyone concerned about this pressing public policy issue will find this book to be a valuable resource.

Journal of American History - Rebecca J. Mead

Extraordinary and timely, The Embattled Vote in America reveals the politics and history of the right to vote, or, more importantly, the lack of the right to vote. Lichtman’s courtroom involvement with voting rights and the breadth and depth of his analysis underscore the significance of the vote in our democracy. A remarkable and provocative book that is essential reading for all citizens.

Orville Vernon Burton

The great value of Lichtman’s book is the way it puts today’s right-wing voter suppression efforts in their historical setting. He identifies the current push as the third crackdown on African-American voting rights in our history.

New York Review of Books - Michael Tomasky

A sweeping look at the history of voting rights in the U.S., focusing on the constant struggle to extend suffrage in this country.

Vox - Sean Illing

Lichtman’s important book emphasizes the founders’ great blunder: They failed to enshrine a right to vote in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights…The Embattled Vote in America traces the consequences through American history…[Lichtman] uses history to contextualize the fix we’re in today…Growing outrage, he thinks, could ignite demands for change. With luck, this fine history might just help to fan the flame.

James A. Morone James A. Morone

Lichtman’s important book emphasizes the founders’ great blunder: They failed to enshrine a right to vote in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights…The Embattled Vote in America traces the consequences through American history…[Lichtman] uses history to contextualize the fix we’re in today…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 - James A. Morone

Allan J. Lichtman's important book emphasizes the founders' great blunder: They failed to enshrine a right to vote in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Instead, the Constitution handed control over elections to state and local governments. Local officials developed thousands of different electoral systems with no uniform standards or regulations and little oversight. Elections were organized and supervised by partisans brazenly angling for advantage. The Embattled Vote in America traces the consequences through American history…Lichtman ends with a little flicker of hope. Growing outrage, he thinks, could ignite demands for change. With luck, this fine history might just help to fan the flame.

The New York Times Book Review - James A. Morone

★ 2018-06-18
A noted authority on the history of American voting returns with a disturbing account of American political leaders who have, since the beginning of the republic, worked to limit the franchise.Lichtman (History/American Univ.; The Case for Impeachment, 2017, etc.), a winner of the National Jewish Book Award, does not conceal his political preferences throughout this sturdy account; it's abundantly clear that he is unhappy with both Donald Trump and the current GOP. Nonetheless, he marches us through the dark history of voter limitation, from the Founders to now, and the images he paints are not flattering. The Constitution itself is vague about voting rights—by design, since white male property owners had limited trust in others who did not meet their club requirements—and as Lichtman escorts us through the decades, we see an ugly pattern: people in power doing everything they can to remain so—and limiting suffrage has always been a favorite tactic. The author examines a wide variety of discrimination: by race, gender, place of origin (immigrants, as he reminds us, have rarely been welcome here). He spends a lot of time exploring the denial and suppression of the African-American vote, and he notes how such efforts have succeeded and how they continue to dampen voter turnout. His text is rich, occasionally dense, with examples. Legal challenges and court decisions, statehouse maneuvers, legislative misbehavior—all combine to leave readers with a dim view of the history of voting rights in this country. The author also explores the issue of "voter fraud" that many (who wish to limit voting rights) have long raised. As Lichtman reveals, repeated studies have found virtually no evidence of it: a tiny fraction of a single percent. At the end he offers some suggestions for renewal, including easier voter registration, a holiday for national elections, and so on.An alarming, important, perhaps even essential book.

Kirkus Reviews