Ballots of Tumult: A Portrait of Volatility in American Voting

Ballots of Tumult examines the dynamics of explosive and large-scale electoral change in the United States throughout the twentieth century. The case is made that electoral volatility, often overlooked, is nonetheless common to American politics. This conclusion runs counter to much of the conventional wisdom regarding stability in American politics.Four types of electoral events are brought together to demonstrate the massbased structure of electoral volatility: electoral realignments, the...