American Elections of 2008

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier is Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science, courtesy professor of sociology, and director of the program in Statistics and Methodology at Ohio State University. She is the coeditor of the 2008 Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology with Henry E. Brady and David Collier and coauthor of Event History Modeling: A Guide for Social Scientists with Bradford S. Jones.Steven E. Schier is Dorothy H. and Edward C. Congdon Professor of Political Science at Carleton College. He is the author or editor of eleven books, most recently Panorama of a Presidency: How George W. Bush Acquired and Spent His Political Capital and numerous scholarly and media articles.

The amazing election of 2008 is going to spawn a generation of analysis of why Barack Obama won and what the repercussions of that victory prove to be. Here's a smart start—from the impact of George W. Bush's legacy to the role of religion—by some of the nation's most respected political scientists. Beyond the election of the nation's first African American president, they argue in this informative set of essays, 2008 may well mark a major shift in American politics that echoes for decades. Here's a look at how that happened.

• 1 Preface2 The George W. Bush and Bill Clinton Legacies in the 2008 Election3 The Campaign and the Media4 Democratic Marathon, Republican Sprint: The 2008 Presidential Nominations5 The General Election Campaign6 Partisan Surge and Decline in Congressional Elections: The Case of 20087 Public Opinion in the 2008 Presidential Election8 Religion in the 2008 Election9 Campaign Finance in the 2008 Election10 The Meaning of the 2008 Election11 Index12 About the Contributors