One Person, One Vote: A Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America

Political scientist Seabrook (Drawing the Lines) delivers a sweeping study of gerrymandering, the process of manipulating the boundaries of political districts to ensure an election’s outcome. Noting that Patrick Henry attempted to prevent his nemesis, James Madison, from serving in the first Congress by influencing the Virginia state assembly’s districting plan, Seabrook shows that the “partisan manipulation” of electoral maps began well before the 1830s, when a salamander-shaped district drawn by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry’s Democratic-Republican Party was nicknamed the “Gerrymander.” In the first half of the 20th century, the refusal of state officials to redraw district lines in response to demographic shifts—known as the “creeping gerrymander”—sparked public outrage and led to a series of 1960s Supreme Court rulings establishing that citizens are entitled to periodic redistricting to ensure that the power of their vote was not diluted. These rulings—though well-intentioned—created the conditions by which Democrats placed a stranglehold on California politics in the 1980s and Republican operatives consolidated power in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states in the 2010s. As a remedy, Seabrook urges readers to pressure their state legislatures to establish independent commissions and other nonpartisan redistricting procedures. Dense yet entertaining, this comprehensive survey is a worthy introduction to a high-stakes political issue. (June)