A convincing and well-documented set of winning electoral strategies.
Perron, a veteran political consultant, offers tested methods for defeating incumbents in this nonfiction work.
“This book is about winning elections,” the author declares at the outset as he emphasizes the importance of vibrant campaigns to “the heart and soul of a democracy.” Perron is a TEDx speaker and campaign strategist with almost two decades of experience advising politicians around the world. Central to the book’s thesis is that whether one is running for city council or president of the United States, there are fundamental strategies and best practices that remain constant. It’s a step-by-step guidebook of proven tactics, centered on how to challenge incumbent politicians. Its first chapters call on prospective candidates to conduct an “honest assessment” of the incumbent’s vulnerabilities, recognizing that those in power have a major advantage as known quantities (“voters don’t know what a challenger would really do if elected”). Drawing lessons from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory over Jimmy Carter, among other incumbent defeats, the author argues that turning an election into a referendum can successfully focus attention away from an untested record. Other chapters provide practical tips on messaging, the nuances of “Selling Change,” and crisis management. While discussing the roles of social media and new tools, such as artificial intelligence, the book argues that the “strategic fundamentals of election campaigns” remain the same, even as technology changes. One such fundamental, he says, is a “crystal-clear” knowledge of exactly how many votes a candidate needs to win, and where those votes are.
Perron’s book blends a pragmatic, down-to-earth writing style with scholarly research, based in part on the author’s own experiences running campaigns, as well as a model that he first published in his 2010 doctoral dissertation.It contains ample textbox vignettes, charts, and tables that make for an enjoyable and visually appealing reading experience. The author emphasizes that his tips will work in any campaign against an incumbent, so he draws not only on examples from U.S. presidential elections, but also from contests in France, Ukraine, Brazil, and other places where the author has consulted for politicians. This international outlook, and its attention to elections from the municipal to the federal level, make this a unique contribution to the literature. Partisan and ideologically driven readers may not always appreciate the author’s detached approach that, for instance, never reveals his personal political beliefs or even the names of his clients. Instead, Perron centers on traits and strategies that will work for challengers of all political persuasions. This nonpartisan approach, however, does not mean the book’s perspective is jaded in any way. Indeed, a central theme of the book is its warning to would-be politicians that “the lows as a candidate are really low,” and that challengers need “enough humility to make good decisions.” At just over 200 pages in length, this is an efficient, concise manual that gives aspiring candidates, strategists, and even casual political junkies plenty of stimulating insights into the traits that successful challengers share.
A convincing and well-documented set of winning electoral strategies.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781635768404
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Radius Book Group
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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