Unconventional Wisdom

Unconventional Wisdom offers a novel yet highly accessible synthesis of what we know about American voters and elections. It not only provides an integrated overview of the central themes in American politics--parties, polarization, turnout, partisan bias, campaign effects, swing voters, the gender gap, and the youth vote--but it also upends many of our fundamental preconceptions. Most importantly, it shows that the American electorate is much more stable than we have been led to believe, and that the voting patterns we see today have deep roots in our history. Throughout, the book provides comprehensive information on voting patterns; illuminates--and corrects--popular myths about voters and elections; and details the empirical foundations of conventional wisdoms that many understand poorly or not at all. It is essential reading for anyone interested in American politics.

Karen M. Kaufmann is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Maryland. She has appeared on CNN's Inside Politics.
John R. Petrocik is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of Missouri.
Daron R. Shaw is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas-Austin. He served as a strategist in the 2000 and 2004 presidential election campaigns and is on the Fox News national decision team.

Preface
1: Facts and Myths about American Voters: An Introduction
2: Americans Hate to Love Their Party, but They Do!
3: Are American Voters Polarized?
4: Who swings?
5: Soccer Moms and Other Myths about the Gender Gap
6: The Young and Not-So-Restless Voters
7: The Partisan Bias of Turnout
8: Campaign Effects in the Twenty-First Century
9: Hard Facts and Conventional Wisdom as We Look to the Future
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index