Attack Politics Negativity in Presidential Campaigns since 1960 Emmett H. Buell Jr. and Lee Sigelman April 2008 336 pages, 63 tables, 18 figures, 6 x 9 Studies in Government and Public Policy Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1561-2, $34.95 Ask most Americans, and they’ll tell you that presidential campaigns get dirtier and more negative with every election. But Emmett Buell and Lee Sigelman suggest that may not be as true as we think. From Jimmy Carter’s use of “fear arousal” in attacking Ronald Reagan to George Bush’s allusions to the “L word” to disparage Michael Dukakis’s liberalism, Buell and Sigelman show how, over the last dozen elections, negativity may have been well publicized but hasn’t increased—and that John Kennedy waged the most negative campaign of all. Buell and Sigelman focus on both presidential and vice-presidential nominees as sources and targets of attacks and also examine the actions of surrogate campaigners like the Swift Boat Vets. Drawing on the New York Times as a research base—more than 17,000 campaign statements extracted from nearly 11,000 news items—they provide a more comprehensive assessment of negativity than anything previously attempted. Beginning in 1960, Buell and Sigelman categorize campaigns according to their level of competitiveness—from runaways like 1964 to dead heats like 2000 and 2004—to demonstrate how candidates go negative as circumstances warrant or permit. They break down negativity into different components, showing who attacked whom, how frequently, on what issues, how they did it, and at what point in the campaign. They also compare their findings with previously published accounts of these campaigns—including first-hand accounts by candidates and their confidants. And, as an added bonus, each chapter features “echoes from the campaign trail” that reflect the invective exchanged by rival campaigns. Attack Politics pins down much about negative campaigning that has previously been speculated on but never subjected to such systematic research. It offers the best overview yet of modern presidential races and is must reading for anyone interested in the vagaries of those campaigns. “In this remarkable book Buell and Sigelman provide not only the most systematic treatment of negative campaigning, but also the best account yet written of the development of the modern presidential campaign. Both political scientists and practitioners will want to have this work ready at hand in their library; it is the indispensable ‘bible’ on the subject.”—James W. Ceaser, coauthor of Red over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics “This tour de force joins John Geer’s In Defense of Negativity as a ‘must read’ for all scholars studying negative campaigns, but also for students of political communication, democratic deliberation, and campaign strategy more generally.”—Richard Lau, author of Negative Campaigning: An Analysis of U.S. Senate Campaigns EMMETT H. BUELL JR. is Richard G. Lugar Professor of Public Policy at Denison University and coeditor of Enduring Controversies in Presidential Nominating Politics. LEE SIGELMAN is Columbian Professor of Political Science at George Washington University and coeditor of Political Mythology and Popular Fiction and, with Buell, Nominating the President.   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586