The death of Georgia governor-elect Eugene Talmadge in late 1946 launched a constitutional crisis that ranks as one of the most unusual political events in U.S. history: the state had three active governors at once, each claiming that he was the true elected official. This is the first full-length examination of that episode, which wasn't just a crazy quirk of Georgia politics (though it was that) but the decisive battle in a struggle between the state's progressive and rustic forces that had continued since the onset of the Great Depression. In 1946, rural forces aided by the county unit system, Jim Crow intimidation of black voters, and the Talmadge machine's "loyal 100,000" voters united to claim the governorship. In the aftermath, progressive political forces in Georgia would shrink into obscurity for the better part of a generation. In this volume is the story of how the political, governmental, and Jim Crow social institutions not only defeated Georgia's progressive forces but forestalled their effectiveness for a decade and a half.

Atop broad stone stairs flanked by statues of ancient lawgivers, the U.S. Supreme Court building stands as a shining temple to the American idea of justice. As solidly as the building occupies a physical space in the nation's capital, its architecture defines a cultural, social, and political space in the public imagination. Through these spaces, this book explores the home of the most revered institution of U.S. politics-its origin, history, and meaning as an expression of democratic principles. The U.S. Supreme Court building opened its doors in 1935. Although it is a latecomer to the capital, the Court shares the neoclassical style of the older executive mansion and capitol building, and thus provides a coherent architectural representation of governmental power in the capital city. More than the story of the construction of one building or its technical architectural elements, The U.S. Supreme Court's Democratic Spaces is the story of the Court's evolution and its succession of earlier homes in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. This timely study of how the Supreme Court building shapes Washington as a space and a place for political action and meaning yields a multidimensional view and deeper appreciation of the ways that our physical surroundings manifest who we are as a people and what we value as a society.

Shifting the focal point from incumbency to open seat competition in the U.S. House of Representatives is the task this book embraces. In the process, the authors demonstrate the importance of candidates and competition, and the role of money, gender, and special elections in determining how open seats get filled and when partisan changes occur.

Democracy's Meanings challenges conventional wisdom about how the public thinks about and evaluates democracy. Mining both political theory and over 75 years of public opinion data, the book argues that Americans think about democracy in ways that go beyond voting or elected representation. Instead, citizens have rich and substantive views about the material conditions that democracy should produce, which draw from their beliefs about equality, fairness, and justice. Using survey data collected over several years, the authors construct a typology of views about democracy. Procedural views of democracy take a minimalistic quality. While voting and fair treatment are important to this vision of democracy, ideas about equality are mostly limited to civil liberties. In contrast, social views of democracy incorporate both civil and economic equality; according to people with these views, democracy ought to meet the basic social and material needs of citizens. Complementing these two groups are moderate and indifferent views about democracy. While moderate views sit somewhere in between procedural and social perspectives regarding the role of democracy in producing social and economic equality, indifferent views of democracy involve disaffection toward it. For a small group of apathetic citizens, democracy is an ambiguous and ill-defined concept.

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, invalidating a key provision of voting rights law. The decision - the culmination of an eight-year battle over the power of Congress to regulate state conduct of elections - marked the closing of a chapter in American politics. That chapter had opened a century earlier in the case of Guinn v. United States, which ushered in national efforts to knock down racial barriers to the ballot. A detailed and timely history, The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act analyzes changing legislation and the future of voting rights in the United States. In tracing the development of the Voting Rights Act from its inception, Charles S. Bullock III, Ronald Keith Gaddie, and Justin J. Wert begin by exploring the political and legal aspects of the Jim Crow electoral regime. Detailing both the subsequent struggle to enact the law and its impact, they explain why the Voting Rights Act was necessary. The authors draw on court cases and election data to bring their discussion to the present with an examination of the 2006 revision and renewal of the act, and its role in shaping the southern political environment in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, when Barack Obama was chosen. Bullock, Gaddie, and Wert go on to closely evaluate the 2013 Shelby County decision, describing how the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court created an appellate environment that made the act ripe for a challenge. Rigorous in its scholarship and thoroughly readable, this book goes beyond history and analysis to provide compelling and much-needed insight into the ways voting rights legislation has shaped the United States. The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act illuminates the historical roots - and the human consequences - of a critical chapter in U.S. legal history.

A central political issue in American politics during the 1990s is the need for political campaign reform. A variety of proposals have been advanced to reform the system of congressional elections, most notably in relation to campaign financing. The authors examine U.S. Senate elections to determine the role money plays in the contests; their analysis indicates that the system of campaign finance resembles a market, with legislators serving as the recipients of financial largesse based on their institutional positions and political vulnerability. This rent-seeking relationship between economic interests and legislators has transformed the dynamic of Senate elections. Assessing the potential impact of several electoral reform proposals, Professors Regens and Gaddie argue that debates over the nature and consequences of proposed changes in election finance are often waged without an underlying point of theoretical reference. In addition, little consideration is placed upon impacts relative to each other or collectively on the political system. Spending limits and public funding proposals, they contend, will not have the effects expected by reform advocates. Term limit and public funding proposals would disrupt the rent-seeking relationship between legislators and economic interests, and these proposals would also face political and constitutional barriers to implementation.

What makes young aspiring politicians take the leap and enter the electoral arena? Born to Run tells the stories of nine young politicians from all walks of life who enter races at the state and local levels in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Georgia, Nebraska, and Maine. Across the board, Gaddie finds a great range of motivations, strategies, and success rates among his carefully selected group. He doesn't rely strictly on interviews (although they provide lots of colorful detail), but hit the campaign trail along with his subjects to observe firsthand the pressures and challenges with which a new candidate is faced. Five years of fieldwork are amplified by survey data on candidates, legislators, and activists that bear out in greater numbers what Gaddie discovered on the ground. Working in the tradition of Richard Fenno's esteemed Home Style, Born to Run contributes to developing a more comprehensive model of political ambition that accounts for the origins of aspiration and the uncertainties that accompany every political career, but especially the early ones. Born to Run is irresistible for students of the same age as some of the candidates, invaluable to anyone who has studied campaigns and elections from the top down, and intriguing to anyone who wants insight into some potential rising stars within both the Democratic and Republican parties.

A central political issue in American politics during the 1990s is the need for political campaign reform. A variety of proposals have been advanced to reform the system of congressional elections, most notably in relation to campaign financing. The authors examine U.S. Senate elections to determine the role money plays in the contests; their analysis indicates that the system of campaign finance resembles a market, with legislators serving as the recipients of financial largesse based on their institutional positions and political vulnerability. This rent-seeking relationship between economic interests and legislators has transformed the dynamic of Senate elections. Assessing the potential impact of several electoral reform proposals, Professors Regens and Gaddie argue that debates over the nature and consequences of proposed changes in election finance are often waged without an underlying point of theoretical reference. In addition, little consideration is placed upon impacts relative to each other or collectively on the political system. Spending limits and public funding proposals, they contend, will not have the effects expected by reform advocates. Term limit and public funding proposals would disrupt the rent-seeking relationship between legislators and economic interests, and these proposals would also face political and constitutional barriers to implementation.

On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, invalidating a key provision of voting rights law. The decision - the culmination of an eight-year battle over the power of Congress to regulate state conduct of elections - marked the closing of a chapter in American politics. That chapter had opened a century earlier in the case of Guinn v. United States, which ushered in national efforts to knock down racial barriers to the ballot. A detailed and timely history, The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act analyzes changing legislation and the future of voting rights in the United States. In tracing the development of the Voting Rights Act from its inception, Charles S. Bullock III, Ronald Keith Gaddie, and Justin J. Wert begin by exploring the political and legal aspects of the Jim Crow electoral regime. Detailing both the subsequent struggle to enact the law and its impact, they explain why the Voting Rights Act was necessary. The authors draw on court cases and election data to bring their discussion to the present with an examination of the 2006 revision and renewal of the act, and its role in shaping the southern political environment in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, when Barack Obama was chosen. Bullock, Gaddie, and Wert go on to closely evaluate the 2013 Shelby County decision, describing how the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court created an appellate environment that made the act ripe for a challenge. Rigorous in its scholarship and thoroughly readable, this book goes beyond history and analysis to provide compelling and much-needed insight into the ways voting rights legislation has shaped the United States. The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act illuminates the historical roots - and the human consequences - of a critical chapter in U.S. legal history.

The death of Georgia governor-elect Eugene Talmadge in late 1946 launched a constitutional crisis that ranks as one of the most unusual political events in U.S. history: the state had three active governors at once, each claiming that he was the true elected official. This is the first full-length examination of that episode, which wasn't just a crazy quirk of Georgia politics (though it was that) but the decisive battle in a struggle between the state's progressive and rustic forces that had continued since the onset of the Great Depression. In 1946, rural forces aided by the county unit system, Jim Crow intimidation of black voters, and the Talmadge machine's "loyal 100,000" voters united to claim the governorship. In the aftermath, progressive political forces in Georgia would shrink into obscurity for the better part of a generation. In this volume is the story of how the political, governmental, and Jim Crow social institutions not only defeated Georgia's progressive forces but forestalled their effectiveness for a decade and a half.

Love OU Football? Love trivia? Think you know every bit of trivia on Oklahoma Sooner Football? Think again. It's time to find out how smart you really are about the Sooners. Test your knowledge of one of the greatest sports programs in America. Learn the fascinating facts that made the Oklahoma Sooners an elite college football power. Anybody can recite a few famous players and coaches, but is your Sooner Nation IQ able to withstand 200 questions on everything from leading rushers to tackle artists? Just how much do you know about the home of the Sooners and the program's winning prowess? Will you earn a Ruf-Nek shotgun blast after getting a question right? We'll let you know. Test your skills. Wrack your brain. It's the ultimate Oklahoma Sooner IQ test. This book is for everyone: those who think they know everything about OU football, and those who don't know much about OU football history but love their Sooners. Good luck and Boomer Sooner

Think you know Georgia Bulldogs Football? Think again. In this brand new book in the IQ Sports Series find out how smart you really are about the Dawgs. Anybody can tailgate, but can you make it through the whole game, playing under the hot Georgia sun, grinding it out on the red clay of Sanford Stadium against Auburn? Will you earn that cool drink that tastes of success and hear the peal of the Chapel Bell marking yet another victory? We'll let you know. Test your skills. Wrack your brain. It's the ultimate Georgia Bulldogs IQ test. Seven chapters, more than 250 questions - that's what you're up against, and we're keeping score. "It's really quite simple - if you love Bulldogs football, you'll love this book. You will definitely be given plenty of chances to prove your mad-trivia skills, but this book is so much more than a test of your fandom - it is also a celebration of the many legends who have made the Georgia Bulldogs one of the most successful and beloved collegiate programs in the country." - Cameron Silver, author and illustrator of How to Build the Perfect Bulldog

Vintners Landing is quintessential Small Town, USA. Nestled in the knobs of Kentucky among tobacco farms, horses, and rolling hills covered in bluegrass - it's the kind of place where everyone is a good neighbor, where families spend generations on the same property, and the kind of place, some would say, you'd have to die to get out. In rural America people have almost no secrets, and that is perhaps the only difference here ... because in Vintners Landing, as Hayden Rollin discovers on a violent night that wretches him fully from adolescence into manhood, things are a bit more complicated than it appears from the outside. Hayden's best friend Danny is gunned down after a bizarre standoff with police. No one understands the truth about what happened, least of all Hayden, but after losing Tara, his first love and Danny's sister, and the death of his best friend, Hayden decides it's time someone in his family does the unthinkable - he leaves. Hayden finds balance in his new life with music, architecture, and Tracy, his true love, until a split-second, random act of violence once again strips it all away. Asia, Europe, as far as he can go, Hayden runs. Yet he can't escape this one truth - sooner or later, his journey will take him back to Vintners Landing where a newly discovered body will force him to confront the ghosts from his past. Layer upon layer, his journey unravels a mystery of love and loss that involves people so certain of who they are that they will inflict and endure any misery rather than express their true feelings.

At the very beginning of the interwar period, a small collection of formally trained architects created a distinctive residential type which can undoubtedly be recognized as a Philadelphia landmark. They surpassed the conventional pseudo-classic or neo-Gothic eclectic solution by a unique adaptation of the principles and criteria of design to suit the expression of the exclusive cultural tradition of the clients and to respond to the natural environment. The works of three Philadelphia architectural firms -- Mellor, Meigs and Howe, McGoodwin, and Willing and Sims -- are analyzed to explore this proposition, using six houses constructed between 1917 and 1928 as a basis. These homes and others located in the historic Chestnut Hill neighborhood are aesthetically pleasing. But they also represent a break with the past, the emergence of a new ‘type’ which is among the architectural design innovations of the last century generally conceived as ‘organic’ architecture. This work, which contains over 200 photographs and drawings, considers the houses, the training and development of the architects, the creation and development of Chestnut Hill itself, and the larger, distinct culture of Philadelphia in contributing to the emergence of this distinctive and lasting style.