The 480

Infobox Book |
name = The 480
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author = Eugene Burdick
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country = United States
language = English
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genre = Political fiction
publisher = McGraw Hill
release_date = 1964
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media_type = Print (hardcover & paperback)
pages = 313 pp (hardcover)
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"The 480" is a political fiction novel by Eugene Burdick (1964).

The plot evolves around the political turmoil after John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963. In the novel, a fictitious charismatic character, John Thatch, an engineer, is seeking nomination for the Republican Party candidate at 1964 presidential elections. He is described as being contaminated with the "political virus". A handful of political professionals is promoting his nomination, in confrontation with the Party establishment. There exist apparent parallels between Thatch and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., a write-in hero at New Hampshire primary.

The novel criticizes the socio-political effects on society at large from the use of computers to run massive simulations, which predict the public reaction to certain (proposed) political moves before implementing them. Such simulations make it easy to manipulate the public consciousness.

The 480 in the title denotes the number of groups (by party affiliation, social-economic status, location, origin, etc.) that the computer simulation uses to classify the American electorate. The full list of these is reproduced in the Appendix, claimed by the author to be the true list used by the Simulmatics Corporation (real name) in Senator John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1960. The cover features an IBM 5081 punch card.

Burdick collaborated with William Lederer on several other didactic novels, the most famous being "The Ugly American" (1958).