I just finished a great book about the 1800 election: "A Magnificent Catastrophe", by Edward J. Larson. It's an analysis of the 1800 election, the first election that had a real presidential campaign in front of it.

One of the fascinating things about the story is the way the election proceeded - unlike today, not all states voted on the same day, and not all states voted in the same fashion. Some had popular elections (as we do now), some had legislative elections, and some allocated electors on the basis of Congressional districts (only Maine and Iowa do that today). The elections also proceeded slowly, over the course of weeks - and in some states, the election itself was held over a period of days. With news traveling as slowly as it did then, it gave the election an ongoing drama, with partisan newspapers doing analysis for a long time.

The newspapers were also very different: the parties (and thus, the in office administration) had their own papers, which they funded. Interestingly enough, I think the upshot of that was probably a more honest media than the supposedly objective one we have now, with all the various campaign regulations larded on. Never mind all that though; read the book for the sheer drama of the story. I vaguely remembered the whole Hamilton/Burr thing from school - this book brought the 1800 backstory for that to life.

Highly recommended - it's history, but it reads like an action novel.

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