Book Reviews : Presidential Ballots 1836-1892. By W. DEAN BURNHAM. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. 1955. Pp. xix, 956. $10.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900158
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

231

Presidential

Ballots

1836-1892.

By

W.

DEAN

BURNHAM.

(Baltimore:

The

Johns

Hopkins

Press.

1955.

Pp.

xix,

956.

$10.00.)

This

massive

volume

provides

a

treasure-trove

for

all

students

of

long-

term

trends

in

presidential

balloting.

The

author

and

compiler

has

fol-

lowed

generally

the

methods

of

statistical

presentation

that

were

worked

out

in

Edgar

E.

Robinson’s

The

Presidential

Vote:

1896

to

1932,

pursuing

the

subject

back

into

history

to

the

earliest

point

for

which

county

returns

could

generally

be

found.

Finding

these

country

returns

involved

visits

to

many

of

the

state

capitols

and

the

exhuming

of

data

&dquo;from

misplaced

cigar

boxes

and

various

statehouse

subterranean

storerooms

long

since

aban-

doned.&dquo;

The

bulk

of

the

book

results

from

the

fact

that

it

undertakes

a

complete

presentation

of

county

returns

in

presidential

elections

for

the

period

covered.

But

it

also

includes

162

pages

of

review

and

analysis

of

the

elec-

tions

from

1836

to

1892.

This

material

would

constitute

a

substantial

and

extremely

valuable

monograph

in

its

own

right.

It

greatly

illuminates

the

characteristics

of

the

Whig-Democratic

two-party

system

of

1836-52,

clari-

fies

the

breakdown

in

the

party

system

between

1852

and

1860,

covers

the

period

during

which

the

two-party

system

was

restored

to

working

order,

and

ends with

the

election

in

which

the

Populist

party

polled

its

greatest

vote.

It

can

safely

be

assumed

that

students

of

party

history

will

be

mining

data

from

Mr.

Burnham’s

book

for

years

to

come.

This

is

not

the

kind

of

venture

that

will

do

much

to

reduce

any

publisher’s

deficit,

but

it

con-

tributes

directly

to

the

advancement

of

knowledge

and

will

be

immensely

useful

as

a

tool

of

research.

The

Brookings

Institution.

PAUL

T.

DAVID.

Das

Internationale

Privatrecht

Deutschlands.

By

MARTIN

WOLFF.

(3d

ed.;

Berlin-Goettingen-Heidelberg:

Springer-Verlag.

1954.

Pp.

ix,

254.

DM

24.60.)

(

Owing

to

editorial

changes

the

review

of

this

book

in

the

December

issue

of

the

Quarterly

was

garbled

.

It

is

here

printed

as

Dr.

Wolfe

wrote

it.)

The

present

treatise

is

the

third

edition

of

this

author’s

Internationales

Privatrecht,

which

was

first

published

in

1933.

The

new

title

indicates

that

the

major

part

of

the

treatise

- Book

II,

which

comprises

about

six-tenths

of

the

text

-

deals

in

detail

with

those

rules

as

to

the

conflict

of

laws

that

are

applied

by

Germany.

It

should

be

noted,

however,

that

the

rules

of

private

international

law

as

applied

by

Germany

are

really

but

the

rules