Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State:
Why Americans Vote the Way They Do
Andrew Gelman

Cloth | 2008 | $27.95 / £19.95
248 pp. | 6 x 9 | 11 color illus. 81 line illus.

e-Book | 2008 | $27.95 | ISBN: 978-1-4008-2836-4

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On the night of the 2000 presidential election, Americans sat riveted in front of their televisions as polling results divided the nation's map into red and blue states. Since then the color divide has become a symbol of a culture war that thrives on stereotypes--pickup-driving red-state Republicans who vote based on God, guns, and gays; and elitist, latte-sipping blue-state Democrats who are woefully out of touch with heartland values. Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State debunks these and other political myths.

With wit and prodigious number crunching, Andrew Gelman gets to the bottom of why Democrats win elections in wealthy states while Republicans get the votes of richer voters, how the two parties have become ideologically polarized, and other issues. Gelman uses eye-opening, easy-to-read graphics to unravel the mystifying patterns of recent voting, and in doing so paints a vivid portrait of the regional differences that drive American politics. He demonstrates in the plainest possible terms how the real culture war is being waged among affluent Democrats and Republicans, not between the haves and have-nots; how religion matters for higher-income voters; how the rich-poor divide is greater in red not blue states--and much more.

Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State is a must-read for anyone seeking to make sense of today's fractured American political landscape.

Myths and facts about the red and the blue:

Myth: The rich vote based on economics, the poor vote "God, guns, and gays."
Fact: Church attendance predicts Republican voting much more among rich than poor.

Myth: A political divide exists between working-class "red America" and rich "blue America."
Fact: Within any state, more rich people vote Republican. The real divide is between higher-income voters in red and blue states.

Myth: Rich people vote for the Democrats.
Fact: George W. Bush won more than 60 percent of high-income voters.

Myth: Religion is particularly divisive in American politics.
Fact: Religious and secular voters differ no more in America than in France, Germany, Sweden, and many other European countries.

Andrew Gelman is professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University. His books include Bayesian Data Analysis and Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks. He received the Presidents' Award in 2003, awarded each year to the best statistician under forty.

Reviews:

"If you're interested in understanding the state of the art in the geography and demographics of American public opinion as we head down the final stretch of the presidential race (and who isn't!), this is a book you shouldn't miss."--Will Wilkinson, The Fly Bottle

"Gelman works his way, state by state, to help us better understand the relationship of class, culture, and voting. The book is a terrific read and offers much insight into the changing electoral landscape."--Sudhir Venkatesh, Freakonomics blog

"Attempting to explain 'why Americans vote the way they do,' Gelman and a group of fellow political scientists crunch numbers and draw graphs, arriving at a picture that refutes the influential one drawn by Thomas Frank, in What's the Matter with Kansas?, of poor red-staters voting Republican against their economic interests. Instead, Gelman persuasively argues, the poor in both red states and blue still mostly vote Democratic, and the rich, nationally speaking, overwhelmingly vote Republican."--Leo Carey, The New Yorker

"The thesis of this topical book is that how Americans vote depends on where they live as well as who they are. Gelman makes this argument clearly and repeatedly in colloquial language, in black and white graphics and in maps coloured red and blue. . . . A major strength of the book is that it shows the importance of changes in America in the past half century."--Times Higher Education

More reviews

Table of Contents:

PART I: THE PARADOX 1
CHAPTER 1: Introduction 3
CHAPTER 2: Rich State, Poor State 8
CHAPTER 3: How the Talking Heads Can Be So Confused 24
PART II: WHAT'S GOING ON 41
CHAPTER 4: Income and Voting over Time 43
CHAPTER 5: Inequality and Voting 58
CHAPTER 6: Religious Reds and Secular Blues 76
CHAPTER 7: The United States in Comparative Perspective 94
PART III: WHAT IT MEANS 109
CHAPTER 8: Polarized Parties 111
CHAPTER 9: Competing to Build a Majority Coalition 137
10 Putting It All Together 165
Notes and Sources 179
Index 221

Another Princeton book by Andrew Gelman:

• Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do (Expanded Edition).

Subject Areas:

• Political Science and International Relations
• Mathematics

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Cloth: $27.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13927-2

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