Earl and Merle Black have delivered another insightful book that describes contemporary politics by examining historical trends. They argue that the proper understanding of American politics—from election to policy—requires a regional analysis. In their own words: “Important geographical divisions, we believe, are at the heart of the very close national battles between Democrats and Republicans. American politics becomes much more interesting—and easier to understand—when the party battles are examined region by region” (p.xi). Their five regions are the South, Northeast, Pacific Coast, Midwest, and Mountains/Plains.
Having written three authoritative books on southern politics (Politics and Society in the South in 1987, The Vital South in 1993, and The Rise of Southern Republicans in 2003), the authors in this book offer us their broadest interpretation yet of contemporary American politics. Following in the fine tradition of their previous books, the Blacks have skillfully blended history and data to proffer a compelling argument about the utility of examining intraregional variations in order to understand politics today. The first half of Divided America describes the various regions and the second half describes how these regions have voted for and are represented by the House, the Senate, and the presidency. The conclusion nicely brings these parts together to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of contemporary politics in the United States.
The authors argue that America is politically divided because each party has a stranglehold on two regions. They show how Democrats have come to dominate the Northeast and Pacific Coast and how Republicans have captured the South and Mountains/Plains. According to their analysis, as goes the Midwest, so goes the nation. Republicans were able to dominate the House from 1995 to 2007 because they won a majority of seats in the Midwest. They kept control of the Senate during this period (with the brief Democratic interlude in 2001–2) and the presidency in 2000 and 2004 only because of their nearly monolithic control in the South and Mountains/Plains. The Blacks correctly predicted that if voting trends in the Midwest continued to favor the Democrats, the Republicans would find it harder to maintain control of the House.
The authors do more than focus on the regions' similarities and differences in politics. Their analysis is more complex and their argument more insightful than that. When appropriate, they examine, within each region, a variety of characteristics and demographics, including religion, gender, and race. Such an analysis offers individual-level explanations for issue positions and voting trends in categories like “new minorities,” “Catholic men,” and “nonevangelical Protestant women.” The Blacks argue that it is the transformation of these groups politically and the concentration of these groups regionally that have brought about the current divide in America.
While this level of analysis may seem tedious at various parts in the book, the reward for sticking with it reveals itself at the end. The Democratic Party is favored by minority women (by 52%), non-Christian white women (by 45%), minority men (by 38%), and non-Christian white men (by 20%). The Republican Party, on the other hand, is favored by “three groups of white Christians” (p. 246)—white Protestant men (by 38%), white Protestant women (by 22%), and white Catholic men (by 20%). The remaining category is white Catholic women. Winning this demographic will yield control of the political system. Accordingly, Democrats and Republicans are keen to capture their support. Understanding this key fact provides insight to the parties' campaign strategies.
If there is a fault in the analysis, it is that the book can appear to be clunky at times. Balancing analysis with prose is sometimes tilted too heavily toward the former; for example, “The Democrats drew their large advantages from minority women, non-Christian white women, minority men, and non-Christian white men” (p. 71) would be better understood without the forced demarcation of men from women. In fact, throughout the book, only a few times does splitting the groups by gender yield insight (such as with Catholics)—in nearly every other case, it just gets in the way. The presentation of the analysis in tables and charts is sometimes less than user friendly. For example, connecting the dots with lines makes more sense when the x-axis is years, but much less sense when it is regions.
The Blacks have something important to say to both political junkies and researchers. While casual readers may, at times, become frustrated keeping track of the multitude of groups, regions, and numbers in play, they are rewarded by gaining insight not only into the current partisan divide in Washington, D.C., but also into the features and history of the House, Senate, and presidency. To scholars of American politics, the authors divide the difference between those studying the mechanics of institutions and those studying the political behavior of the American public by offering a cogent argument about the interplay of groups and regions in contemporary American politics.
In their four books, the Blacks have taken us from understanding the minutia of the southern voter to a broad analysis of party control of American political institutions. When the books are read as a set, few scholars could compete with the breadth and depth of their analyses. Divided America is sure to withstand the tests of time in the same fashion as have Politics and Society in the South and The Vital South. Every student of electoral or institutional politics in the United States should read, study, and heed the analysis of Merle and Earl Black.
