Donald Trump's November 2016 electoral victory was the beginning of four years of demagogy, presidential name-calling, and--ten months into a pandemic--an incitement to violence that led a mob of thousands to descend on the Capitol in Washington, DC. Fueled by suspicion, conspiracy, and bigotry, a faction of Americans had decided to seize control. But the biggest effect of this right-wing wave may not have been on our national politics, but on the local governments of communities around the country.

In Chaos Comes Calling, Sasha Abramsky investigates the empowerment of the far-right over the past few years, stoked by the Trump presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic. He tells the parallel stories of two communities, Shasta County, California and Sequim, Washington, where toxic alliances of QAnoners, anti-vaxxers, Christian nationalists, militia supporters and other denizens of the far-right have worked to take control of the levers of power.

The trajectories of both communities expose the stark divisions and extremism that have come to define our political landscape over the past decade, and offer revealing glimpses of what the future may hold. While Sequim ultimately recalibrated in 2021, returning to rationality, Shasta County has descended further into a climate of intolerance and toxic divisiveness.

Chaos Comes Calling vividly captures both the regressive forces gaining momentum all over the country and the tireless efforts of citizens determined to organize against them.

A two-time Daley chief-of-staff, Forrest Claypool draws on his long career in local government to examine the lasting successes, ongoing dramas, and disastrous failures that defined Daley's twenty-two years in City Hall. Throughout, Claypool uses Daley's career to illustrate how effectual political leadership relies on an adept and unapologetic use of power--and how wielding that power without challenge inevitably pulls government toward corruption.

A warts-and-all account of a pivotal figure in Chicago history, The Daley Show tells the story of how Richard M. Daley became the quintessential big city mayor.

How local contexts help us understand why White voters in America's heartland are shifting to the right

Over the past several decades, predominantly White, postindustrial cities in America's agriculture and manufacturing center have flipped from blue to red. Cities that were once part of the traditional Democratic New Deal coalition began to vote Republican, providing crucial support for the electoral victories of Republican presidents from Reagan to Trump. In How the Heartland Went Red, Stephanie Ternullo argues for the importance of place in understanding this rightward shift, showing how voters in these small Midwestern cities view national politics--whether Republican appeals to racial and religious identities or Democrat's appeals to class--through the lens of local conditions.

Offering a comparative study of three White blue-collar Midwestern cities in the run-up to the 2020 election, Ternullo shows the ways that local contexts have sped up or slowed down White voters' shift to the right. One of these cities has voted overwhelmingly Republican for decades; one swung to the right in 2016 but remains closely divided between Republicans and Democrats; and one, defying current trends, remains reliably Democratic. Through extensive interviews, Ternullo traces the structural and organizational dimensions of place that frame residents' perceptions of political and economic developments. These place-based conditions--including the ways that local leaders define their cities' challenges--help prioritize residents' social identities, connecting them to one party over another. Despite elite polarization, fragmented media, and the nationalization of American politics, Ternullo argues, the importance of place persists--as one of many factors informing partisanship, but as a particularly important one among cross-pressured voters whose loyalties are contested.

This is a valuable artifact in itself, but the new foreword by Judge David Briley--former Nashville mayor and grandson of the first metro Nashville mayor, Beverly Briley--offers a firsthand account of the realities of metropolitan government sixty years on.

Heather Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take an active role in politics during the past few years. Though her entire campaign for assembly member in Haines, Alaska, cost less than $1,000, she won! And tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines isn't the sleepy town it appears to be. Yes, the assembly must stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street, but there is also a bitter debate about the fishing boat harbor and a vicious recall campaign that targets three assembly members, including Lende. In Of Bears and Ballots we witness the nitty-gritty of passing legislation, the lofty ideals of our republic, and the way our national politics play out in one small town. With her entertaining cast of offbeat but relatable characters, the writer whom the Los Angeles Times calls part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott brings us an inspirational tale about what living in a community really means, and what we owe one another.

The state's rural nature highlights some of the challenges involved in providing government services, promoting community development, fostering access to health care, and delivering public services in places that have seen population decline and economic distress. Combining new empirical information about political behavior with a close examination of the capacity of the state's government, this edition is a comprehensive and pointed study of the state's ability to respond to the needs of a largely rural and relatively low-income population.

Long relegated to the shadows of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the role of James Madison in shaping America, its ideals, and its institutions resonates in the very soul of our nation. A lifelong public servant, Madison was a critical - if underappreciated - architect of the American Republic. Gary L. Rose's James Madison, Public Servant shines an essential light on Madison's wide-ranging legacy. An accomplished presidential scholar and political commentator, Rose begins with a brief treatment of the Madison family's roots and early life in the Piedmont region of Virginia and his time as a student at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). It was there that Madison's values of democratic government and personal liberty became ingrained thanks to the teachings of that institution's president, the renowned scholar John Witherspoon.

Rose presents Madison's captivating journey through the War of Independence, including his roles as a delegate to Virginia's constitutional convention, appointment to the Governor's Council, and selection as a member of the Continental Congress. Readers will learn of Madison's essential role at the national Constitutional Convention in 1787, which immortalized him as The Father of the Constitution. As a co-author of the Federalist Papers, along with his skillful argumentation at Virginia's ratifying convention, Madison was instrumental in securing the Constitution's ratification by the states. Three public offices followed: four terms as a member of the U.S. Congress, during which time he authored the Bill of Rights; eight years as Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State, and two terms as our nation's fourth president. Madison's presidency included a declared war against the United Kingdom, referred to by his political adversaries as Mr. Madison's War. He also left a profound legacy in the formation of a political party committed to the principles of Jeffersonian republicanism.

Rose's concise treatment of James Madison's public service is essential reading for anyone invested in our nation's political norms and institutions.

California: The Politics of Diversity examines the diverse and hyperpluralistic nature of California and its people. No other textbook on California politics offers as much coverage and in-depth analysis of the state's political development, institutions, and public policies that have shaped the Golden State into what it is today.

The American workplace, and especially local governments, faces increasingly numerous metaphoric meteors in these ever-changing times. These meteors can appear in the form of cyber-attacks, international military conflicts, continental supply chain disruption, a global pandemic, or things we have yet to imagine...

Under these scenarios, inevitably the attention of leaders will be diverted from daily operational activities on which community constituents rely. Managing for Meteors is aimed at priming organizations to be as efficient and effective as possible, so when that major disruption hits - the agency will be more likely to pass the preparedness test.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a mayor? Well after serving three terms as a mayor and being a local and regional government official for over thirty-five years I think I know. So I wrote this book to pull the curtain back just enough to let you peak in and know as well. After you read this book you will know how political capital is used to make government work. You will also learn that you can tell a lot about how a person will govern by the kind of campaign they run to win an election. You will also see how circumstances can affect leadership and how public engagement can be a full contact sport. What is it like working with unions and dealing with the press or managing a fragmented government? I have been fortunate in that my career has spanned over some very interesting times and events. I was the first modern day Mayor for the City of Methuen after a charter change was approved to create a city form of government. The way the city was governed changed dramatically and the way government officials interacted and made decisions had to adjust as well. What happens and how does a city respond when one of your largest employers in your city, Malden Mills, is destroyed by fire? How do you protect the jobs and the economy of your city? What happens when your community has term limits and you need to leave before the job is done?

It is a fascinating life with funny memories and memorable events that leads to a rewarding life. I hope you enjoy the story.

When the State Meets the Street probes the complex moral lives of street-level bureaucrats: the frontline social and welfare workers, police officers, and educators who represent government's human face to ordinary citizens. Too often dismissed as soulless operators, these workers wield a significant margin of discretion and make decisions that profoundly affect people's lives. Combining insights from political theory with his own ethnographic fieldwork as a receptionist in an urban antipoverty agency, Bernardo Zacka shows us firsthand the predicament in which these public servants are entangled.

Public policy consists of rules and regulations, but its implementation depends on how street-level bureaucrats interpret them and exercise discretionary judgment. These workers are expected to act as sensible moral agents in a working environment that is notoriously challenging and that conspires against them. Confronted by the pressures of everyday work, they often and unknowingly settle for one of several reductive conceptions of their responsibilities, each by itself pathological in the face of a complex, messy reality. Zacka examines the factors that contribute to this erosion of moral sensibility and what it takes to remain a balanced moral agent in such difficult conditions.

Zacka's revisionary portrait reveals bureaucratic life as more fluid and ethically fraught than most citizens realize. It invites us to approach the political theory of the democratic state from the bottom-up, thinking not just about what policies the state should adopt but also about how it ought to interact with citizens when implementing these policies.

Local politics in the United States once seemed tranquil compared to the divisiveness and dysfunction of the country's national politics. Those days have passed. As multiple wide-ranging crises have thrust America's local governments into the spotlight, they have also exposed policy failures and systemic problems that have mounted for years. While issues such as policing and the cost of housing are debated nationally, much of the policymaking surrounding these issues occurs locally. In Local Interests, Sarah F. Anzia explores how local governments--and the interest groups that try to influence them--create the policies that drive the national conversation: policing, economic development, housing, and challenges of taxing and spending.

Anzia examines local interest groups in terms of the specific policies they pursue, including how these groups get active in politics and what impact they have. By offering new perspectives on these issues, Anzia contributes to our knowledge of how interest groups function and the significant role they play in shaping broader social outcomes.

How local contexts help us understand why White voters in America's heartland are shifting to the right

Over the past several decades, predominantly White, postindustrial cities in America's agriculture and manufacturing center have flipped from blue to red. Cities that were once part of the traditional Democratic New Deal coalition began to vote Republican, providing crucial support for the electoral victories of Republican presidents from Reagan to Trump. In How the Heartland Went Red, Stephanie Ternullo argues for the importance of place in understanding this rightward shift, showing how voters in these small Midwestern cities view national politics--whether Republican appeals to racial and religious identities or Democrat's appeals to class--through the lens of local conditions.

Offering a comparative study of three White blue-collar Midwestern cities in the run-up to the 2020 election, Ternullo shows the ways that local contexts have sped up or slowed down White voters' shift to the right. One of these cities has voted overwhelmingly Republican for decades; one swung to the right in 2016 but remains closely divided between Republicans and Democrats; and one, defying current trends, remains reliably Democratic. Through extensive interviews, Ternullo traces the structural and organizational dimensions of place that frame residents' perceptions of political and economic developments. These place-based conditions--including the ways that local leaders define their cities' challenges--help prioritize residents' social identities, connecting them to one party over another. Despite elite polarization, fragmented media, and the nationalization of American politics, Ternullo argues, the importance of place persists--as one of many factors informing partisanship, but as a particularly important one among cross-pressured voters whose loyalties are contested.

Chicago's transformation into a global city began at City Hall. Dick Simpson and Betty O'Shaughnessy edit in-depth analyses of the five mayors that guided the city through this transition beginning with Harold Washington's 1983 election: Washington, Eugene Sawyer, Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emmanuel, and Lori Lightfoot. Though the respected political science, sociologist, and journalist contributors approach their subjects from distinct perspectives, each essay addresses three essential issues: how and why each mayor won the office; whether the City Council of their time acted as a rubber stamp or independent body; and the ways the unique qualities of each mayor's administration and accomplishments influenced their legacy.

Filled with expert analysis and valuable insights, Chicago's Modern Mayors illuminates a time of transition and change and considers the politicians who--for better and worse--shaped the Chicago of today.