Using a number of states as case studies, especially in New England, Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States explains why large shifts in voter partisan preferences have occurred since the 1950s in that section of the country. In these Northern states, citizens of New England Yankee or Norwegian ancestry and voters with higher educational levels have abandoned historical preferences for the national Republican party to vote in increasing percentages for Democratic presidential candidates in almost every election since 1952. Many of these areas in the past preferred the moderate or liberal wing of the Republican party but have found their traditional party focusing on conservative appeals to a Southern electorate in recent years. In 1980, 1992, and 1996, many of these Northern areas demonstrated significant support for the independent presidential candidacies of John Anderson and Ross Perot, who represented a more moderate brand of Republicanism than the party's...