Close presidential elections in the United States are measured, evaluated and remembered primarily by simple statistics. One can easily find out, for example, how many states in the electoral college were won by each presidential candidate, and by how much. But to stop there is to miss the most dramatic parts of the political contests. Why were the votes so close? What issues split the electorate? Was it the behavior or the reputation of the candidates? This book answers these questions and more, identifying and examining 12 of the closest elections, from the 1796 battle between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Retired CPA, corporate executive and management consultant Robert E. Kelly is an author and an award-winning journalist. He lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Robert E. Kelly
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 348
Bibliographic Info: appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4484-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-6213-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Preface      1

Introduction      3

1. 1796: John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson      7

2. 1800: John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson      26

3. 1824: John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson      42

4. 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes vs. Samuel J. Tilden      57

5. 1880: James A. Garfield vs. Winfield S. Hancock      74

6. 1884: Grover Cleveland vs. James G. Blaine      90

7. 1888: Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin Harrison      109

8. 1948: Harry S Truman vs. Thomas E. Dewey      125

9. 1960: Richard M. Nixon vs. John F. Kennedy      156

10. 1968: Hubert H. Humphrey vs. Richard M. Nixon      189

11. 1976: Gerald F. Ford vs. Jimmy Carter      219

12. 2000: George W. Bush vs. Albert A. Gore      255

Conclusion      296

Appendices      301

Chapter Notes      313

Bibliography      327

Index      331

“highly readable”—Choice.