Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy (Studies in Postwar American Political Development)

Today, politics is big business. In Building a Business of Politics, a lively history of political consulting, Adam Sheingate examines the origins of the industry and its consequences for American democracy. He traces the history of political consultants from its origins in the publicity experts and pollsters of the 1920s and 1930s to the strategists and media specialists of the 1970s who transformed political campaigns into a highly profitable business.

Adam Sheingate is a professor and chair of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Rise of the Agricultural Welfare State.