"This book is a substantial and welcome addition to the historiography of the development of modern American political parties."—Journal of Church and State

"In lively prose, Williams demonstrates how salient social/cultural conservatism was to a cross-partisan group of white voters and how it drove polarization over the long term."—Journal of Southern History

“Williams offers a well-researched examination of how Carter and Ford secured their nominations, selected their running mates, and contested the general election.”—Choice

“To understand current US politics, look to the election of 1976. That’s the argument that Daniel K. Williams makes—quite convincingly—in this well-researched, engaging account of a crucial presidential race that often gets overlooked.”—Matthew Pressman, assistant professor of journalism, Seton Hall University

“Here is the definitive ‘making of the president, 1976.’ Based on extensive archival research and written in clear, concise prose, this book explains why Jimmy Carter won the election and why the electoral map was never the same after.”—Edward Berkowitz, author of Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies

“The presidential election of 1976 changed modern American politics in every conceivable way. Daniel Williams tells this important tale with prose that crackles and with the pace of a political thriller. Ford, Dole, Carter, and Mondale come alive for the reader, and the analysis of their decision-making offers a real contribution to the historiography of the presidency in the 1970s. This will remain the definitive study of the election of 1976 for some time to come.”—John Robert Greene, author of I Like Ike: The Presidential Election of 1952

“Daniel Williams’s study of the 1976 presidential election goes well beyond previous scholarship. Whereas many scholars have written about ‘how Jimmy won,’ in this thorough and insightful book Williams argues that the election reflected and encouraged transformation of the Democratic and Republican parties, ironically not in directions favored by the two contenders who would turn out to be ‘the last of the moderates.’ Williams is convincing in his thesis that this was the last of the New Deal elections that divided along regional and class lines and foreshadowed elections to come in which parties divided according to values-based ideologies.”—

Marjorie J. Spruill, author of Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics

“In this well-written and well-researched account, Dan Williams finds the origins of our polarized politics in the presidential campaign of 1976. The Election of the Evangelical shows not just how Americans put the first born-again Christian into the White House but also how our entire political system was reborn—from the new importance of presidential primaries and the new influence of pressure groups at both ends of the spectrum to the larger trend to ‘outsider’ politicians like Jimmy Carter.”—Kevin M. Kruse, coauthor of Fault Lines: A History of the United States since 1974

“In this meticulously researched, sharply argued, and briskly written book, Dan Williams revisits the 1976 presidential election—a surprising, eventful contest that pioneered many of the features of modern presidential campaigns and anticipated the polarized cultural politics of the twenty-first century. With judicious insight, Williams reconstructs Jimmy Carter’s path to the White House and the enduring impact of his victory.”—Bruce J. Schulman, William E. Huntington Professor of History, Boston University