The Fight to Vote

Great condition - better than described

Michael Waldman lives and breathes voting issues. He is president of the Brennen Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to improve the systems of democracy and justice. He has written a history of the Fight to vote, beginning at the beginning, when a bunch of colonists, living in a highly stratified society declared that men were created equal and that governments should have the consent of the governed. But we have never really been sure just who the governed were that were giving their consent. In the beginning, there were property qualifications put on the right to vote by the various states, based on the theory that one had to have a stake in society in order to be able to vote. But many felt that veterans should be able to vote, even if they had no property. When the Constitutional Convention met to discuss a new, stronger form of national government, they left the issue of voting qualifications to the states, which had lasting consequences. There is also no declared "right to vote" in our Constitution. This allowed states to put qualifications on voting in certain periods of our history, notably the post-Civil War years. Several amendments have tried to address this problem, but Brennen shows that the amendments after the Civil War were largely ignored. And they continued to be ignored for almost 100 years. The right to vote has been, in American History, associated with movements towards democracy, which the Revolutionary elites associated with "mob rule". Brennen shows how our history has been a "push-pull" on voting rights and that the current attempts to curtail voting rights come from a long history of such attempts. The book throws much needed light on our current political problems, including not only the issue of voting rights, but also the reasons why so many politicians talk so much about "State's Rights".

This book is the history of voting rights in the United States. Although people think disenfranchisement is bad now, the author points out very clearly that the right to vote has come and gone through various swings from the beginning of the country. Even the 13 colonies, before becoming the United States, had vastly different voting rights for their citizens.Beginning the book with the 13 original colonies, the author does a running history of who could vote and under what circumstances. And, depending on who was in power and who they wanted to be able to vote changed with various progressions of the country. The author clearly points out that there have been ups and downs in the rights of voters from the beginning. For instance, I wonder how many people realize that blacks could vote, and run for office during the early reconstruction years, but that the right was systematically taken away as the views on who was to lead the South changed over time.The author finishes with voting as it is today. He points out just how old the equipment is, how it should be changed and how we can empower voters that are being disenfranchised today. He has quite a list of suggested changes on voting in the 21st century and we should likely take many of his suggestions to heart.This is an important book, if for no other reason than it points out jst how precious our right to vote is, and how unlike in many countries, we take it for granted and tend to use out right with regularity. This book should be a must read in every US history class in the country….it might just change some opinions and wake people up.

Am about 2/3rds thru the book. And while I can say, it definitely illuminates many of the underlying issues with voting " integrity" that you/one probably never realized existed, it does so at a very plodding pace. I appreciate the exposure to, and am appalled at, the apparent amorphous " one man/ one woman vote standard" and how it has been misused to justify anything but. However, at my level of interest, I think, a more condensed version of the material in this book would have sufficed.

How can I review this wonderful book as a lawyer, already interested in the issues it presents? I read the book in constant sittings, meaning that when I had to put it down, the next time I had the chance, I wanted to return to find out what else the author had to say. That's the best compliment I can give any book. The prose is enviable to me, a person who writes, at least in part, for a living. I don't know if someone without my background would be as taken in, but the book is written for the "ideal reader," meaning an intelligent person who does not necessarily have any background in the subject matter. I think if you read the first available pages online, the author might take you in. I recommend it highly.

I was told to read this book in my public policy course at my university. A good read to learn about the history of voting within America and the effects it had on those that the system continues to try and exclude. Would recommend 10/10

This book provides a history of voting issues since the founding of the US. The last couple of chapters provide an very helpful summary of the various issues that are being debated today, and nicely distinguishes the roles of parties, legislatures, courts and the people. I highly commend the book (even though it gives short shrift to comparative experiences in other democracies).

A well written history of the fight for voting rights. The author pulls together several historical instances of the difficulty of obtaining voting rights for everyone, some most will recall and some few of us remember. Great review of the history voting rights legislation and judicial decisions, both those that restrict and those that grant voting rights. A book which all American patriots should read.