Political focus, political books. After you vote today, soak
up some political knowledge:

California Women and
Politics edited by Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson

In 1911 as progressivism moved toward its zenith, the state of California
granted women the right to vote. However, women’s political involvement in
California’s public life did not begin with suffrage, nor did it end there. This edited volume explores the role women played in California politics in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In Thought and Action by Gerald W. Haslam with Janice E. Haslam

This biography of S. I. Hayakawa, a prominent Japanese American U.S. senator and California university president in the 1960s and 1970s is intimate and detailed. It draws on interviews with friends and family
members, as well as Hayakawa’s own papers and journals, to bring this
controversial and fascinating figure to life. He was an enigma to colleagues as
well as adversaries, a Republican senator who consistently bucked his party’s
ideals with his support of the women’s movement, abortion rights, and even
Ronald Reagan’s search for a female running mate.

Or learn more about your state with UNP’s POLITICS
AND GOVERNMENTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES, featuring the newest of the series, Colorado Politics and Policy by Tom
Cronin and Robert Loevy.