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The Curious Creation of the Electoral College: What the Founders Didn't Want and Didn't See Coming
Hoping to sidestep popular elections and transcend politics, the framers concocted a bizarre, untried method of selecting the president. Little did they suspect how their system would be gamed, from 1789 through 2012. Ray Raphael’s latest book is Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). Listen to the talk with an introduction by MHS Trustee and William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History at MIT Pauline Maier.