Gerrymanders : How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia / Brent Tarter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarter, Brent, 1948- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Election districts.

Virginia--Politics and government.

Virginia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (141 pages)

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville, Virginia : University of Virginia Press, [2019]

Summary:

Many are aware that gerrymandering exists and suspect it plays a role in our elections, but its history goes far deeper, and its impacts are far greater, than most realize. In his latest book, Brent Tarter focuses on Virginia's long history of gerrymandering to uncover its immense influence on the state's politics and to provide perspective on how the practice impacts politics nationally. Offering the first in-depth historical study of gerrymanders in Virginia, Tarter exposes practices going back to nineteenth century and colonial times and explains how they protected land owners' and slave owners' interests. The consequences of redistricting and reapportionment in modern Virginia-in effect giving a partisan minority the upper hand in all public policy decisions-become much clearer in light of this history. Where the discussion of gerrymandering has typically emphasized political parties' control of Congress, Tarter focuses on the state legislatures that determine congressional district lines and, in most states, even those of their own districts. On the eve of the 2021 session of the General Assembly, which will redraw district lines for Virginia's state Senate and House of Delegates, as well as for the U.S. House of Representatives, Tarter's book provides an eye-opening investigation of gerrymandering and its pervasive effect on our local, state, and national politics and government.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Notes

For Further Information

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780813943213

0813943213

OCLC:

1088669464