Synopses & Reviews
"An important new book" (The Washington Post) on the long struggle to win voting rights for all citizens by the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography and president of The Brennan Center, a legal think tank at NYU.
Michael Waldman's The Second Amendment traced the ongoing argument on gun rights from The Bill of Rights to now. In this "timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue" (Kirkus Reviews), Waldman takes a succinct and comprehensive look at an even more crucial struggle: the past and present effort to define and defend government based on "the consent of the governed." From the writing of the Constitution, and at every step along the way, as Americans sought the right, others have fought to stop them. This is the first book to trace the entire story from the Founders' debates to today's restrictions: gerrymandering; voter ID laws; the flood of money unleashed by conservative nonprofit organizations; making voting difficult to the elderly, the poor, and the young, by restricting open polling places.
Waldman describes the precedents for these contemporary arguments. The fight, sometimes vicious, has always been at the center of American politics: from counting slaves but not permitting them to vote, to property-less males, then to free Blacks, women, eighteen-year-olds, and the disadvantaged, who were harassed by literacy tests. Now the right to vote is challenged by restrictions on open polling schedules and IDs, plus floods of money. It's been a raw, rowdy, fierce, and often rollicking struggle for power. The Fight to Vote is "an engaging, concise history...offering many useful reforms that advocates on both sides of the aisle should consider" (The Wall Street Journal).
Review
"An engaging, concise history of American voting practices, and despite a heavily partisan treatment of today's 'voting wars,' it offers many useful reforms that advocates on both sides of the aisle should consider." The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Waldman's important and engaging account demonstrates that over the long term, the power of the democratic ideal prevails — as long as the people so demand." The Washington Post
Review
"The Fight to Vote is an important and powerful reminder that we forget American history at our peril: that democracy was hard-won and that with the right to vote once again under attack, it's ours to lose." Linda Greenhouse, Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School
Review
"Michael Waldman's masterly history reminds us that We the People can and must restore our experiment in Constitutional freedom." Taylor Branch, author of America in the King Years
About the Author
Michael Waldman is president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving the systems of democracy and justice. He was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999 and is the author of The Fight to Vote, My Fellow Americans, POTUS Speaks, and three other books. Waldman is a graduate of Columbia College and NYU School of Law. He comments widely in the media on law and policy.