Book Reviews: The Political Almanac, 1952. By GEORGE GALLUP and the American Institute of Public Opinion Staff. (New York: B. C. Forbes & Sons Publishing Co., Inc. 1952. Pp. xv, 317. $5.95.)

• Date: 01 December 1952
• Published date: 01 December 1952
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295200500451
• Subject Matter: Articles

717

The

Political

Almanac,

1952.

By

GEORGE

GALLUP

and

the

American

Insti-

tute

of

Public

Opinion

Staff.

(New

York:

B.

C.

Forbes

&

Sons

Publishing

Co.,

Inc.

1952.

Pp.

xv,

317.

$5.95.)

Editors,

radio

commentators,

political

scientists,

and

many

others

owe

a

debt

of

gratitude

to

Gallup

and

his

AIPO

staff

for

collecting

into

a

single

volume

a

remarkable

amount

of

data

on

national

and

state

politics

and

elections.

Maps

and

charts

are

used

to

convey

the

percentages

of

major-party

popular

and

electoral

votes

since

1900,

Republican

counties

from

1932

through

1948,

lists

of

the

next

three

United

States

senatorial

elections,

voting

participation

in

the

United

States

and

foreign

democracies

and

the

total

presidential

and

mid-term

vote.

One

interesting

chart

shows

voter

registration

in

New

York

City

in

October

to

be

a

highly

accurate

barometer

of

the

total

national

turnout

in

November.

Numerous

tables

give

the

popular

and

electoral

vote

for

president

from

1789

to

1948,

the

1944

and

1948

vote

by

states

and

sections,

the

Democratic

percentage

of

major

party

vote

from

1900

to

1944,

the

big

city

vote,

1932-48,

vote

by

age

and

occupation

groups,

1936-48,

and

the

1946

and

1950

congressional

elections.

Basic

facts

about

the

electoral

college,

the

1952

nominating

conventions,

armed-services

voting

and

con-

gressional

apportionment

are

included.

For

the

student

of

politics

the

two

hundred

and

twenty

pages

devoted

to

basic

political

statistics

of

the

forty-eight

states

is

probably

the

greatest

timesaver.

Here

one

finds

for

each

state

a

list

and

the

terms

of

the

governor,

United

States

senators

and

representatives,

and

the

vote

for

major

national

offices

from

1928

to

1950,

including

the

minor

parties,

and

congressional

district

election

sta-

tistics

for

1946

and

1950.

The

major-party

vote

by

counties,

1936-48,

in

presidential

elections,

together

with

a

supplementary

table

ranking

every

county

from

highest

to

lowest

percentage

of

the

Democratic

presidential

vote

in

1948

is

a

most

useful

contribution.

This

volume

will

not

entirely

replace

the

Book

of

the

States

nor

Robinson’s

works,

The

Presidential

Vote,

I 896-1932

and

They

Voted

for

Roosevelt.

One

still

will

have

to

turn,

for

example,

to

the

latter

for

the

numerical

vote

for

presidential

nominees

in

each

country.

Robinson,

moreover,

provides

the

reader

with

a

commentary

where

the

almanac

contains

little

interpretation.

This

is

not

to

claim

that

the

almanac

should

have

attempted

analysis

but

simply

to

point

out

that

it

makes

little

attempt

to

do

so.

The

compendium

gives

statistics

on

electoral

participa-

tion

but

makes

no

effort

at

identification

of

the

non-voters

except

to

note

geographic

variations.

Data

on

the

political

composition

of

the

state

legislatures

is

omitted.

Key’s

Southern

Politics,

the

case

studies

of

national

convention

dele-

gations

(directed

by

Paul

T.

David),

and

this

almanac

illustrate

the