After Hope and Change

Ceasar (Univ. of Virginia) and Busch and Pitney (both, Claremont McKenna College) offer a well-written, engaging narrative of the 2012 elections. Some readers might take issue with some of the assertions the authors make and perhaps challenge some of their interpretations of events and actions of the campaigns--but is not that what scholarship should do? After Hope and Change is not burdened with political science jargon but drives home the lessons political science teaches about presidential elections, candidates, parties, and politics in general. If an instructor were looking for a work that laid out "the story" of 2012 but did so while placing the events of the campaign in both their historic and academic context, After Hope and Change would be it. Instructors will find that they, or their most politically attuned students, will have plenty of opportunity to discuss how they differ from the points of view the others provide. The presentation of candidate debate performance provides one such opportunity. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. CHOICE Ceaser, Busch, and Pitney have written the best book about the 2012 election. Claremont Review of Books Once again James Ceaser, Andrew Busch and John Pitney have given us an elegant and definitive analysis of the presidential election just past. After Hope and Change moves the 2012 presidential election from journalism to history and has much to teach even the hardiest political junkie. -- Michael Barone, senior political analyst, Washington Examiner, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute, co-author, The Almanac of American Politics