A really excellent and engaging book on the history of data management in politics, which, as a bonus, features some fairly compelling characters. As someone who works in the cottage industry that is political data management, I very much appreciated the chance to get some historical context on what I do and who has come before me.

A couple of caveats: this book intermingles the history of data management from the perspective of polling, field organizing, and finance, but these are in fact increasingly distinct operations within a campaign; I would have appreciated a more structured analysis of the history of these three distinct operations over the last ten years or so. What’s more - there was no mention of the data wars of 2012, which were widely covered in the various election retrospectives, and which may become a rather important story moving forward. Unfortunately this book leaves us almost five years out of date, which is a wide stretch of time in such a fast-moving industry.

On the whole, though - this book is a fascinating look at a side of the political world that has been largely invisible until fairly recently, and is quite well worth the read.