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Maybe someday
48
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
44/100Critics
53/100Scholars
Author:
Alexander Keyssar
Publisher:
Harvard University Press
Date:
July 31, 2020
A Harvard history professor explores the strange quirk in American democracy known as the Electoral College, investigating its tangled origins at the Constitutional Convention, the efforts from 1800 to 2020 to abolish or significantly reform it, and why each effort has failed. Yet he offers encouragement to those hoping to produce change in the system, considering alternatives to Congressional action.
What The Reviewers Say
One of the chief virtues of Alexander Keyssar’s remarkable new book...is that it conclusively demonstrates the absurdity of preserving an institution that has been so contentious throughout US history and has not infrequently produced results that defied the popular will.
... comprehensive and full of historical insight. Even specialists in political and constitutional history will encounter surprises. But in telling this story it’s impossible to avoid repetition. Madison described the debates about the presidency at the constitutional convention as ‘tedious and reiterated’, a comment that can be applied to the entire history of efforts at reform. The problem is exacerbated by the book’s partly chronological, partly thematic structure..
... this is clearly a scholarly book that will appeal most to specialists and policymakers. Amid the obviously deeply researched scholarship, Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard, clearly explains the numerous objections to the Electoral College and the reasons those objections have never gained enough traction for reform to occur.
