Learning at the Library

Despite persistent hand-wringing about the state of our democracy, Americans are relatively ambivalent about one of its foundational institutions. With the notable exception of 2008, voter turnout in presidential elections has been on a steady decline since the 1960s. This is despite the expansions to the franchise that followed the passage of the Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, and the 26th Amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.  This November’s collection limns the forces that have made voting illegal, undesirable, or irrelevant for major segments of the U.S. citizenry over time.

Civic Literacy Through Curriculum Drama, Grades 6-12, a terrific resource with an underwhelming cover, did not make it into the collection. Nevertheless, its premise- that dramatic conventions can help learners understand American electoral politics and government- is also a useful lens for viewing the collection. Books like The Good Citizen, Why We Vote, and Democracy for Realists set the stage and provide background, exposition, and motives for political characters. The central conflict- the fight for suffrage and beyond that, political representation- has featured a varied cast, some with stubbornly recurring roles or role reversals. Among the protagonists have been African Americans (see the curriculum kit Struggle for Black Voting Rights, or the YA biographies Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth be Told and Fannie Lou Hamer: Fighting for the Right to Vote), women (the poster collection Woman’s Suffrage: The Fight for Equality, or the book With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote), and young people (although their demands generally landed outside of the realm of electoral politics, see Manifesto Addressed to the President of the United States from the Youth of America, a collection of essays by teens and twenty-somethings, published shortly before the voting age was lowered to 18). The drive to curtail the franchise has mobilized a more motley set of antagonists (see the award-winning YA book They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, the curriculum kit A History of Political Parties in America, or The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America for a general accounting of the many ways voting is undermined). And of course, every election presents its own contained dramas.

 

It was just over a week ago that New York voters reprised our roles in state and local political theatre, this time with less melodrama than 2016. We overwhelmingly voted against rewriting the state constitution (meaning that Education and the 1967 Constitutional Convention will remain among the publications from the most recent Convention), and a twenty year low in voter turnout produced no upsets in the city races (check eBooks New York City Politics: Governing Gotham and Upsetting the Apple Cart: Black-Latino Coalitions in New York City[…] for insight).

Like many Americans, I’ve been agnostic about the impact of voting on American democracy. Curating this collection did not change that, but it did make me think more deeply about the nature of democracy, civics education, and what it means to be a citizen- hopefully it has provoked similar reflection for you!

Additional Print Resources in our Collection

• Civic Literacy through Curriculum Drama, Grades 6-12 by Catherine A. Franklin [2009]
• Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times by Alice Duer Miller [1915]
• Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century by Bev Harris and David Allen [2004]
• Citizen: an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine [2014]
• Votes for Women: the Fight for Suffrage by Museum of American Political Life [1993]

E-Resources

• Upsetting the Apple Cart: Black-Latino Coalitions in New York City from Protest to Public Office by Frederick Douglass Opie [2014]
• David Dinkins and New York City Politics: Race, Images, and the Media by Wilbur C. Rich [2006]
• Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City by Jonathan M. Soffer [2010]
• The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans’ Right to Vote by Tova Andrea Wang and Janice Nittoli [2012]

And check out this month’s featured databases for Politics and Education.

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On Exhibit
U.S., General

• Presidential Losers by David J. Goldman [1970]
• With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote by Ann Bausum [2004]
• Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life by David E. Campbell [2006]
• The History and Politics of Voting Technology: In Quest of Integrity and Public Confidence by Roy G. Saltman [2006]
• The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America by John R. MacArthur [2012]
• Manifesto Addressed to the President of the United States from the Youth of America Edited by Alan Rinzler [1970]
• Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government by Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels [2016]
• The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast [2004]
• Vote! by Eileen Christelow [2003]
• Struggle for Black Voting Rights: A Jackdaw Adapted by Muriel L. Dubois [2005]
• The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life by Michael Schudson [1999]
• A History of Political Parties in America: a Jackdaw by Christine Brendel Scriabine [2000]
• They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti [2010]
• Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S. Thompson [1973/ 2012]
• Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth be Told by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Bonnie Christensen [2008]
• Fannie Lou Hamer: Fighting for the Right to Vote by Laura Baskes Litwin [2002]
• Woman’s Suffrage: The Fight for Equality; Twelve historical photo-posters Compiled by Christine Scriabine, edited by Jan Morrissey [2008]

New York State

• Education and the 1967 Constitutional Convention; An analysis of selected proposals affecting education which may come before the convention by Arvid Burke [1966]

New York City

• Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth-Century New York City by Lorrin Thomas [2010]
• The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City by Roger Sanjek [1998]