Give Us the Ballot

Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America Audible – Unabridged ridged
Author: Ari Berman ID: B012DHDJQE

The adoption of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. Yet fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power – over the right to vote, the central pillar of our democracy. A groundbreaking narrative history of voting rights since 1965, Give Us the Ballot tells the story of what happened after the act was passed. Through meticulous archival research, fresh interviews with the leading participants in the ongoing struggle, and incisive on-the-ground reporting, Ari Berman chronicles the transformative impact the act had on American democracy and investigates how the fight over the right to vote has continued in the decades since. From new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth to cynical efforts to limit political representation by gerrymandering electoral districts to the Supreme Court’s recent stunning decision that declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act itself unconstitutional, Berman tells the dramatic story of the pitched contest over the very heart of our democracy. At this important historical moment, Give Us the Ballot brings new insight to one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.
Done.
Audible Audio EditionListening Length: 12 hours and 4 minutesProgram Type: AudiobookVersion: UnabridgedPublisher: Tantor AudioAudible.com Release Date: August 4, 2015Language: EnglishID: B012DHDJQE Best Sellers Rank: #56 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Elections & Political Process > Elections #57 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Politics & Current Events > Freedom & Security #93 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Civil Rights & Liberties

Give Us the Ballot is the history of how the Voting Rights Act came into being, took hold and changed America. It’s also the story of the conservative undertow that contested the law from its beginning, recognized its value in shifting the polarities of our two major parties via "The Southern Strategy" and then launched a counterrevolution during the Reagan Administration set on undermining the law before the nation’s changing demographics could pose a serious threat to the right’s southern and rural hegemony.

You’ll recognize many of the stars of the conservative effort to limit voting rights — from William Rehnquist to John Roberts to Ted Cruz. But it’s the life of John Lewis who provides the through line of Berman’s spirited narrative. From Selma to Shelby, Lewis is a participant and a witness to the massive changes he helped force and the backlash those changes sparked. No testimony is more stirring or crucial to understanding the stakes — both moral and political — involved in providing America’s most vulnerable citizens access to the ballot.

“How many of you are going to leave here and remember the blood of the martyrs?” William J. Barber, the architect of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays movement that rose up in part to oppose the right’s attack on voting rights, asked a crowd in 2014.

Berman’s book is asking us that same question.

I don’t believe that this reviewer read the book. If he did, he was given an advanced copy for being a book blogger or one of the other perks for getting a review copy. Whether or not, the book is not about showing/proving social security numbers in order to vote the the United States, which actually reinforces my belief that the reviewer did not read the book, since that is the only complaint he has, and it’s weak. In addition, a reviewer who received an advanced copy would know how weak the review is.

I am currently reading the book, and I listened to the NPR Fresh Air interview with the author. Read before you decide. And, if you are interested in historical background that reflects current events, the book enlightens. I am in process of discovering how phony the US looks,espousing its values while finding ways to thwart those values in order for a political view to prevail over another. My discovery is not limited to the subject of this book.

Although I am far from finished, I will give the book 5 stars, since I can’t put it down, and I have to go to work .

This book provides a superb history of the events leading to the Voting Rights Act, and the history of the impact of the Voting Rights Act, including countless efforts to limit the voting or impact of minority voters. The book also makes clear that the impetus behind voter fraud concerns and restrictions on early voting and registration is really an attempt to limit the voting of the poor and minority voters. Royal Masset, the former executive director of the Texas Republican party said that "anyone who says that a lack of voter ID won’t discriminate against otherwise legal minority voters is lying" and said voter ID laws were "sheer racism" designed to suppress Democratic voters (at 259-260). Cutbacks in early voting hours were defended by the Republican party chair in Ohio who said we "shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban-read African-American-voter-turnout machine" (at 264).
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