This is the first full history dealing with the voting age in the United States from 1607 to 1991 that shows how military service and suffrage have been linked through the years. Although the study points to standards regarding the right to vote back to Athens and Rome and to Europe in the Middle Ages, the account focuses on contemporary America and reviews federal and state action up to the ratification of the 26th Amendment giving 18-year-olds the right to vote. This popularly written study is designed for students of government and for broad audiences in college, university, high school, and public libraries. This history of the voting age in the United States covers the military influence on the ballot box from 1607 to 1941; Congressional concerns from 1941 to 1952; public and political debates across the nation from 1953 to 1960; the mobilization of the young from 1961 to 1969; and executive, legislative, and court action in 1970 and 1971 leading up to the ratification of the 26th Amendment. The study provides an overview of the youth vote since 1971 and points to voting experiences in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand. A short summary is provided at the end of the book, along with a list of references, and a general index.

This is the first full history dealing with the voting age in the United States from 1607 to 1991 that shows how military service and suffrage have been linked through the years. Although the study points to standards regarding the right to vote back to Athens and Rome and to Europe in the Middle Ages, the account focuses on contemporary America and reviews federal and state action up to the ratification of the 26th Amendment giving 18-year-olds the right to vote. This popularly written study is designed for students of government and for broad audiences in college, university, high school, and public libraries. This history of the voting age in the United States covers the military influence on the ballot box from 1607 to 1941; Congressional concerns from 1941 to 1952; public and political debates across the nation from 1953 to 1960; the mobilization of the young from 1961 to 1969; and executive, legislative, and court action in 1970 and 1971 leading up to the ratification of the 26th Amendment. The study provides an overview of the youth vote since 1971 and points to voting experiences in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand. A short summary is provided at the end of the book, along with a list of references, and a general index.

Alice Paul began her life as a studious girl from a strict Quaker family in New Jersey. In 1907, a scholarship took her to England, where she developed a passionate devotion to the suffrage movement. Upon her return to the United States, Alice became the leader of the militant wing of the American suffrage movement. Calling themselves "Silent Sentinels," she and her followers were the first protestors to picket the White House. Arrested and jailed, they went on hunger strikes and were force-fed and brutalized. Years before Gandhi's campaign of nonviolent resistance, and decades before civil rights demonstrations, Alice Paul practiced peaceful civil disobedience in the pursuit of equal rights for women. With her daring and unconventional tactics, Alice Paul eventually succeeded in forcing President Woodrow Wilson and a reluctant U.S. Congress to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Here at last is the inspiring story of the young woman whose dedication to women's rights made that long-held dream a reality.

This adaptation of the book Hillary Clinton calls "a page-turning drama and an inspiration" will spark the attention of young readers and teach them about activism, civil rights, and the fight for women's suffrage--just in time for the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Includes an eight-page photo insert! American women are so close to winning the right to vote. They've been fighting for more than seventy years and need approval from just one more state. But suffragists face opposition from every side, including the "Antis"--women who don't want women to have the right to vote. It's more than a fight over politics; it's a debate over the role of women and girls in society, and whether they should be considered equal to men and boys. Over the course of one boiling-hot summer, Nashville becomes a bitter battleground. Both sides are willing to do anything it takes to win, and the suffragists--led by brave activists Carrie Catt, Sue White, and Alice Paul--will face dirty tricks, blackmail, and betrayal. But they vow to fight for what they believe in, no matter the cost.

The GOP’s leading millennial pollster offers an eye-opening look at America’s shifting demographics and reveals how these changes will affect future elections. The American electorate is undergoing a radical transformation. Cultural factors are reshaping how a new generation of voters considers issues. Demographic shifts are creating an increasingly diverse electorate, and technological advances are opening new avenues for voter contact and persuasion. Kristen Soltis Anderson examines these hot-topic trends and how they are influencing the way youth, women, and minorities vote. Blending observations from focus groups, personal stories, and polling results, the Republican pollster offers key insights into the changing nature of American politics. The Selfie Vote introduces you to tech-savvy political consultants and shows you how these hip young pollsters and consultants are using data mining and social media to transform electoral politics—including tracking your purchasing history. Make some purchases at a high-end culinary store? Crave sushi? Your choices outside the ballot box can reveal how you might vote. And anyone interested in the future of politics should know where these cultural trends are heading. Data-driven yet highly readable, The Selfie Vote busts established myths about campaigns and elections while offering insights about what’s ahead—and what it could mean for American politics and governance.

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.

A thrilling and incisive examination of the post-Reconstruction era struggle for and suppression of African American voting rights in the United States. Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction era raised a new question to those in power in the US: Should African Americans, so many of them former slaves, be granted the right to vote?In a bitter partisan fight over the legislature and Constitution, the answer eventually became yes, though only after two constitutional amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, the impeachment of a president, and an army of occupation. Yet, even that was not enough to ensure that African American voices would be heard, or their lives protected. White supremacists loudly and intentionally prevented black Americans from voting -- and they were willing to kill to do so.In this vivid portrait of the systematic suppression of the African American vote for young adults, critically acclaimed author Lawrence Goldstone traces the injustices of the post-Reconstruction era through the eyes of incredible individuals, both heroic and barbaric, and examines the legal cases that made the Supreme Court a partner of white supremacists in the rise of Jim Crow. Though this is a story of America's past, Goldstone brilliantly draws direct links to today's creeping threats to suffrage in this important and, alas, timely book.