On the eve of Election 2016, comes "an urgent, moving, deeply important history" (Christian Science Monitor) of the Voting Rights Act and an account of the continuing battle for the right to vote.

Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman tells this story for the first time, charting both the transformation of American democracy under the Voting Rights Act and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit it. The act enfranchised millions of Americans, and yet we continue to fight heated battles over race, representation and political power, with lawmakers devising new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth and the Supreme Court declaring a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.

The result is GIVE US THE BALLOT, a book that, at this crucial moment in history and on the eve of the 2016 election, offers new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.