New Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

Hot off the press is the new Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 1788-2004, by J. Clark Archer, Stephen J. Lavin, Kenneth C. Martis, and Fred M. Shelley. It is so new, in fact, that it is not even available on the publisher’ site (CQPress) or Amazon yet, but we had a chance to sit down with Kenneth C. Martis today, who just happens to be a distinguished Geography faculty at our own university, WVU.

Dr. Martis kindly provided us with his own advance copy of the book for a little while to preview it. The book combines summaries of each presidential election, including major candidates, percentage of popular and electoral college vote, and a brief written discussion of the issues and results of the elections. But what really sets it apart are the maps, of course. The atlas includes 55 color map themes to cover each election, with popular vote mapped to the county level and the electoral vote at state level. Dr. Martis’ previous work, including historical atlases of U.S. Congressional Districts and political parties in Congress, have become seminal works in the field of U.S. electoral geography.

It should be available for purchase shortly, and we will update you with links. For those interested in U.S. political geography, the Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections is definitely a book you should check out.