Take one map from 2008 and another from 1860 -- and you can see how the country has changed both a lot and a little in nearly a century and a half.

Barack Obama won the 2008 election by running up large margins in the cities. But within states, the story gets more complicated. The Democrat won the rural vote in a dozen states.

A map of GOP-leaning counties -- and charges of racism -- stir up controversy among Appalachianists. Historian Aaron Astor digs below the surface.

These are the 213 rural counties where voters supported one party in 2004 and a different party in 2008.