Ten top books about important US presidential elections

Jeff Somers is the author of the Avery Cates series, The Ustari Cycle, Lifers, and Chum (among many other books) and numerous short stories.

At the B&N Reads blog he tagged ten books about significant presidential elections, including:

1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America, by David Pietrusza

Everyone has seen the hilarious photo of a victorious President Truman holding up the “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” headline, but what makes the election of 1948 so important today is the reason behind that photo: the disastrously bad polling that had Dewey pegged as a shoe-in for victory. Understanding not just the failure of early polling techniques, but the way a long-shot candidate like Truman pulled together the support necessary for victory, is crucial to understanding every election held since.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue