Unconventional wisdom : facts and myths about American voters /

Kaufmann (Univ. of Maryland), Petrocik (Univ. of Missouri), and Shaw (Univ. of Texas, Austin) take on the mistruths, the half-truths, and the falsehoods often peddled as conventional political wisdom, including the following: Americans vote for the candidate, not the party; high turnout helps Democratic candidates; the gender gap emerged because women became more Democratic; swing voters are defined by demography; Americans voters are polarized; and political campaigns are essentially what determine election outcomes. The authors observe that the mountains of data gathered by political scientists over the last five decades indicate that while "Americans hate to love their party," they do. On swing voters, the authors observe (and offer evidence to support their contention) that although approximately 25 percent of the electorate might be political "swingers" in any specific election, only about 15 percent will actually desert their party. This book is worth the reading to see how the authors select a number of the most popular myths and then destroy those myths with mountains of data. A rollicking good romp through the landscape of political myths and the horrible fate that awaits these myths when they are subjected to the light of analysis based on empirical data. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and students of all levels. W. K. Hall Bradley University