Defying the Odds
The 2016 Elections and American Politics, Post 2018 Election Update
By (author) James W. Ceaser, Andrew E. Busch, John J. Pitney Claremont McKenna College
Publication date:
11 February 2019Length of book:
248 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
232x149mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781538129227
Now updated to include the 2018 midterms and previewing the coming 2020 election cycle, Defying the Odds provides the most comprehensive and authoritative account of the national election, including the presidential nomination process and election and congressional elections. With its keen insights into the issues and events that drove the 2016 election, Defying the Odds will be an invaluable resource for students and all political observers seeking to understand an election that was decades in the making and will continue to resonate throughout American politics for many years to come.
Caesar, Busch, and Pitney continue the same effective style as their earlier After Hope and Change. The work concludes with what for some may be frightening words: ‘[a]nd if anything in politics is certain, it is that victory breeds imitation.’ Whatever one’s preferred electoral outcome might have been, certainly few if any of us want to take that ride again. Defying the Odds is a clear, concise, yet comprehensive retelling of the key events of the 2016 campaign. Once again, with limited use of political science jargon, Caesar and his coauthors make clear the lessons scholars and casual observers alike can draw from the events of the 2016 presidential election. As was the case with their earlier volume, the authors have provided an excellent accompaniment to texts for courses in campaigns and elections, the presidency, or recent political history. Defying the Odds will perhaps be more valuable as a contribution in these fields as time passes, the events are less raw, and we can place them in the context of the passage of time. Summing Up: Highly recommended.