Book excerpt: This work peels back the curtain on how political campaigns influence America, covering everything from social media to getting to the Oval Office. This comprehensive handbook reveals essentially everything the American public wants to know about political campaigns. The two-volume set begins with a historical overview, then goes on to investigate campaigns from a variety of perspectives that shed light on how they work and why. Readers will discover how campaigns are run, how they're covered by the media, how they influence government, and how various interest groups and demographics play a part in the system. The contributors—who include academics, elected officials, journalists, and campaign professionals—offer new data, interviews, and analysis in a style that will prove fresh, accessible, and engaging for everyone from college students to political junkies. They offer the inside scoop on types of campaign media—for example, TV spots, debates, and social media—and on message variables such as language, humor, and evidence. Groups of voters like women and youth are examined, and the work also discusses theories of campaigning such as agenda-setting, issue ownership, the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and the Theory of Reasoned Action. Scandal in American political campaigns, always a subject of interest, is addressed as well.