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Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America Kindle Edition
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A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Nonfiction
A New York Times Notable Book of 2015
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2015
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2015
An NPR Best Book of 2015
Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. Give Us the Ballot tells this story for the first time.
In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights, from 1965 to the present day. The act enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. And yet, fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power, with lawmakers devising new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth and with the Supreme Court declaring a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.
Berman brings the struggle over voting rights to life through meticulous archival research, in-depth interviews with major figures in the debate, and incisive on-the-ground reporting. In vivid prose, he takes the reader from the demonstrations of the civil rights era to the halls of Congress to the chambers of the Supreme Court. At this important moment in history, Give Us the Ballot provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication dateAugust 4, 2015
- File size859 KB
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About the Author
A veteran voice artist, Tom Zingarelli has produced and narrated many audiobooks in the last several years. He has also recorded books for the Connecticut State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. His voice was featured on the popular PBS children's television program Between the Lions and in the off-Broadway production of Ruthless, the Musical.
--This text refers to the audioCD edition.Product details
- ASIN : B00S54VUDY
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 4, 2015)
- Publication date : August 4, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 859 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 386 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #310,404 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #88 in Campaigns & Elections
- #103 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Kindle Store)
- #148 in 21st Century History of the U.S.
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"Give Us the Ballot" is a monumentally critical book for all Americans, not only in light of the 2016 election, but really to understand that the bedrock of democracy, the right to vote, has been under assault. This certainly isn't a new story since it goes back to our founding when essentially only white landowning men could vote. The march of history has certainly led to progress where ostensibly all adults are entitled to vote in theory, yet in practice that is hardly the case. Berman focuses this book on the time period from the modern civil rights movement and one of the most important pieces of legislation, the 1965 Voting Rights Act which was instrumental in eliminating post-Reconstruction barriers like poll taxes and literacy tests that prevented black Americans from exercising the franchise. Berman provides brilliant detail around the progress made because of the VRA, the people and forces that worked to undermine it (John Roberts within the Reagan administration and later as Chief Justice of SCOTUS) and the chicanery undertaken by politicians to promote non-existent voter fraud as a means to "justify" the need for strict voting laws. With the evisceration of section 5 of the VRA, large numbers of Americans across many states now face far more obstacles to vote than ever before. Yes, the election is rigged but not for the reason you PEOTUS wants you to believe. "Give us the Ballot" will make you understand that DJT wouldn't be President if voter suppression wasn't rampant.
This is truly an enlightening and critical book to read about the politicization of what is the most fundamental American right. Berman shines a illuminating and harsh light on voter disenfranchisement.
While events leading up to the passage of the Voting Rights Act are well documented and narrated by the author, the real interest for me as a reader is what has happened since. The book really begins to crackle when Berman describes the 2000 presidential election and the mischief that occurred in Florida. Leave it to misfits like Katherine Harris to disregard the votes of so many Floridians. Yet unbelievably, it is Chief Justice John Roberts who leads the charge as protagonist to new voting restrictions. Through purges in voter rolls and new restrictions on voter ID and early voting, reading this book makes one think that all or most of the progress that has been made since 1965 has been lost. When Moral Monday protests occurred in North Carolina in 2014 a prescient sign reading "Welcome to North Carolina/turn your watch back 50 years" provided an accurate feeling of how so few in southern state legislatures can cause so much damage in such a short space of time.
"Give Us the Ballot" is an exceptionally well-crafted and documented book. The personal stories of many voters who were not allowed to register and/or vote are presented here and their reflections are all too sad... and yet for them, necessary to be related to readers. I highly recommend "Give Us the Ballot" because it tells the story of how a great country of ours can be reduced by those people in power who can't see the forest for the trees."
The book nicely introduces many heroes of the civil rights movement, but I did not expect to see Chief Justice John Roberts planted so firmly on the side of the villains. George Wallace, yes. Strom Thurmond, sure. But Roberts? Sadly, the evidence is here to indict Roberts for his ignorance of racial matters in America. He has been a tool of conservative leaders since his days as a Supreme Court clerk. This fits into a larger story of how the Supreme Court was stacked with conservative justices, which this book also exposes.
The book isn't just an assortment of biographies. Though it uses profiles of people nicely to maintain a narrative flow, it is a book about ideas and political machinations. It provides clear explanations of arguments and ideas, while identifying important changes as debates evolve. The author does this exceptionally well.
Because of the consistent point of view in the book, I won't give it five stars. A more moderate point of view would require editing in countless places. But, that book wouldn't be nearly as engrossing as this one. This is a page-turner. More importantly, it does not want to leave its reader comfortable, but push us all to stand for a fair and accessible ballot. It is a very good book.





