Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, Nonfiction

Named a Notable Book of the Year by
TheNew York Times Book Review and TheWashington Post

Named a Best Book of the Year by
NPR, The Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews (Best Nonfiction)

Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit it from the moment the act was signed into law. The VRA is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement, and yet―more than fifty years later―the battles over race, representation, and political power continue, as lawmakers devise new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth, while the Supreme Court has declared a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.

Through meticulous research, in-depth interviews, and incisive on-the-ground reporting, Give Us the Ballot offers the first comprehensive history of its kind, and provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.

• Who's Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
• Ethnic Options
• Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race
• The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
• On Democracy's Doorstep: The Inside Story of How the Supreme Court Brought "One Person, One Vote" to the United States
• Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count
• The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present
• The Common Good
• The Fight to Vote