Andrew's Political Science Publications

Selected Books

The Elephant in the Room: Donald Trump and the Future of the Republican Party (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) (Andrew E. Busch and William G. Meyer, Eds.)

Did Donald Trump create a new blueprint for Republicans, ruin the Grand Old Party, or something in between? And what, if anything, should his role be in the future of the party? In this collection of timely essays, a variety of center-right political scientists and commentators address Donald J. Trump’s past effects and future role in the Republican Party. Covering policy, politics, character, and comportment, the authors offer a wide range of analyses and recommendations. Essays range from Trump’s place in historical context to analyses of contemporary voting behavior to efforts to disentangle Trump’s policies from his persona.

Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) (Co-author: John J. Pitney, Jr.)

Through pandemic, protests, and polarization, Americans went to the polls in 2020, one of the most contentious elections in American history. Continuing an R&L tradition now entering its fourth decade, Divided We Stand book provides the most comprehensive and authoritative account of the national election, as well as congressional and state elections. From the nominating process to the insurrection designed to stop the ratification of the electoral college vote, Andrew E. Busch and John J. Pitney Jr. revisit the campaigns and results through the short lens of politics today and the long lens of American political history. With its keen insights into the issues and events that drove the 2020 elections, Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics will be an invaluable resource for students and all political observers seeking to understand a historic election that will continue to resonate throughout American politics for many years to come.

“Divided We Stand is a marvel. I didn’t think it was possible to stand above the fray and write a dispassionate, fair minded treatment of the elections, but Busch and Pitney have done it. They show a remarkable ability to present a comprehensive, shrewd, well written account of these troubled elections without descending into partisan rancor. It should be a staple of any course that deals with contemporary American politics.” ~Marc Landy, Boston College

“Busch and Pitney deliver a superlative analysis of 2020’s many political convulsions. Employing lucid prose, incisive explanations and impressive scholarly balance, the authors provide essential reading for those seeking a clear comprehension of America’s tense and perplexing politics.” ~Steven E. Schier, Congdon Professor Emeritus, Carleton College

A Brief History of Public Policy Since the New Deal (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)

“Too often courses in American politics ignore the public policies that are the very stuff about which political forces contend. This book provides a comprehensive and insightful narrative about the actual course of public policy since the New Deal and therefore enables students to understand how policy and politics interact. I plan to use it in my American Politics course.” ~Marc Landy, Boston College

“A historical discussion of public policy—unfortunately now widespread—is uniformed discussion. Andrew Busch rectifies this shortcoming with a balanced, thorough and incisive analysis of the variable course of US domestic policy since 1932. It’s essential reading for both scholars and students of American public policy and a welcome addition to many classrooms.” ~Steven E. Schier, Carleton College

Defying the Odds: The Elections of 2016 and American Politics post-midterm election edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019) (Co-authors: John J. Pitney, Jr. and James W. Ceaser)

“No presidential election in the last 25 years has produced such a surprising result as Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. In Defying the Odds, James Ceaser, Andrew Busch, and John Pitney, explain how this seemingly impossible thing happened, and what it means for America and the future.”–Michael Barone, American Enterprise Institute and The Washington Examiner

“Defying the Odds features terrific analysis of one of the most improbable presidential elections in our nation’s history. Casting a wide investigative net, the authors ably depict the many influences behind the 2016 triumph of billionaire outsider Donald Trump and the Republicans. It’s a book teeming with original insights about a huge turning point in US politics.”–Steven E. Schier, Congdon Professor of Political Science, Carleton College

“Ceaser, Busch, and Pitney Jr. have done it again. Like their earlier campaign chronicles, Defying the Odds is a lively, scholarly analysis that makes sense out of the latest elections. The 2016 elections may have confounded the pundits and pollsters, but these scholars explain what happened and why with clarity and admirable detachment.”–Mark J. Rozell, George Mason University, author; The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics, Sixth Edition

“The intellectual charm of the politics of presidential selection in 2016 lay in a tangled disconfirmation of conventional wisdoms, offered incessantly. Someone has to untangle this succession of anomalies, and who better than Ceaser, Busch, and Pitney? For them, the concept of ‘outsiderism’ is key, and they follow it from start to finish. It is a tour not to be missed. Get on the bus.” ~Byron E. Shafer, Hawkins Chair of Political Science, University of Wisconsin

“Defying the Odds arrives in the nick of time, offering a cogent, informed, and readable account of 2016 presidential campaign. Building on their previous campaign books, the authors provide invaluable context for the Trump era.” ~John C. Green, director, Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, University of Akron

The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution (Rowman & Littlefield/AEI, 2017). (Gary J. Schmitt, Joseph Bessette, and Andrew E. Busch, Eds.)

Time and again, in recent years, the charge has been made that sitting presidents have behaved “imperially,” employing authorities that break the bounds of law and the Constitution. It is now an epithet used to describe presidencies of both parties. The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution examines this critical issue from a variety of perspectives: analyzing the president’s role in the administrative state, as commander-in-chief, as occupant of the modern “Bully Pulpit,” and, in separate essays, addressing recent presidents’ relationship with Congress and the Supreme Court. The volume also deepens the discussion by taking a look back at Abraham Lincoln’s expansive use of executive power during the Civil War where the tension between law and necessity were at their most extreme, calling into question the “rule of law” itself. The volume concludes with an examination of how the Constitution’s provision of both “powers and duties” for the president can provide a roadmap for assessing the propriety of executive behavior.

Truman’s Triumphs: The 1948 Presidential Election and the Making of Postwar America (University Press of Kansas, 2012)

“The surest, shrewdest interpretation of the key election of 1948.”—David R. Mayhew, author of Partisan Balance: Why Political Parties Don’t Kill the U.S. Constitutional System

“The common wisdom about the election of 1948 is that it ranks as one of the classic surprises of electoral politics. By treating it as the exact opposite, Busch both introduces the paradox of 1948 and solves it.” ~Byron E. Shafer, author of The Two Majorities and the Puzzle of Modern American Politics.

“Busch’s rich and nicely paced narrative may be the best of the many books on this subject.” ~Alonzo L. Hamby, author of Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman

The Constitution on the Campaign Trail: The Surprising Political Career of America’s Founding Document (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)

In The Constitution on the Campaign Trail Andrew Busch uncovers a fascinating pattern that will interest students of political rhetoric, campaigns, and American political development. Busch finds that the Constitution is neither dead nor alive in this comprehensive study of campaign rhetoric. In this book a straightforward content analysis of references to the Constitution over the course of American history is transformed into a subtle and detailed account of a cultural twilight zone in which periodic bursts of constitutional enthusiasm punctuate a long-term decay of democratic discourse.” ~Jeffrey K. Tulis, associate professor of political science, University of Texas at Austin, and author of The Rhetorical Presidency

Reagan’s Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right (University Press of Kansas, 2005)

“An exciting new review of America’s march into the new age of Ronald Reagan.” ~Washington Times

“Busch tells an important story here about what he calls ‘the Earthquake of 1980.’ Well-organized, well-paced, and well-argued, this is a first-rate political history.” ~Gil Troy, author of Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s

“A new series needs a worthy inauguration. The University Press of Kansas has provided the former in its series on crucial elections. Andrew Busch has provided the latter with Reagan’s Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right. Busch gathers all the elements of that sour, unpredictable, bubbling, confused, but ultimately iconic affair: the issue context, the cast of contenders, the campaign dynamic, and a view of the aftermath. And he ties them together with a focus on crisis and renewal, giving the 1980 election its claims on political consequence–and on our attention.” ~Byron E. Shafer, author of The Two Majorities and the Puzzle of Modern American Politics

“A meticulous, almost surgical, analysis of the 1980 election.” ~Burton I. Kaufman, author of The Presidency of James Earl Carter, Jr.