In his book on the 1968 election, Nixon Agonistes (1970), Garry Wills wrote:
Each election year is a revelation—in the way the electorate is consulted, wooed, or baffled; in the way issues are chosen, presented, or evaded; in the demands and promises made, compromises struck, strains felt tacitly or voiced.
What did the 2024 election reveal? Many accounts have been published in the months since Election Day. As a rule, those written by journalists focus on what was hidden during 2024 but can now be made public, mostly because knowledgeable insiders who refused to speak during the electoral contest, on or off the record, were willing to tell their stories and vindicate their decisions and opinions after it was over. Conversely, books written by scholars tend to describe the sociopolitical realities that were latent during 2024 but become evident through using statistical analysis to zoom in on the election results, or by widening the field of view in order to place the outcome in a historical or global context.
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Not surprisingly, journalists and scholars each proceed as though the truths uncovered by their profession are the key to making sense of political events. 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America was written by Josh Dawsey,
