This book brings attention to an undeservedly little-known yet fascinating U.S. presidential election. Donald A. Zinman's examination of the wartime 1812 contest concludes that James Madison's reelection validated the war's general popularity and that it saw the start of absentee voting (by soldiers) in presidential contests. As the incumbent, Madison had the edge in electoral math. The 1810 census showed population increases in Democratic-Republican leaning states, spiking Madison's electoral vote total. As Zinman demonstrates clearly, the electoral calendar “was a decentralized mess” (199), with the nomination phase overlapping the election phase and states voting on different dates with widely diverging rules. Zinman also sees signs of the emerging model of organized party competition that came a few decades later. Lastly, given the unsuccessful efforts of challenger DeWitt Clinton to form a fusion coalition with Federalists, “One of the lessons . . . is that for an effective fusion campaign to occur, there must be a system in place of institutionally strong political parties” (200).

Zinman's book has several notable strengths. It provides a detailed case study of the “heir apparent presidency,” the subject of his first book, which is particularly apt here since Madison, as Jefferson's heir apparent