American Politics Today

by William T. Bianco, David T. Canon

Politics is about conflict. Are your students cynical about conflict in American politics? Do they believe politicians generally fight for the sake of fighting, or to gain short-term advantage? Do they believe policy makers should simply set aside their differences and “listen to what the people want”? Bianco and Canon show students that conflict―and the compromise that is necessary to resolve it―is a normal, healthy part of the process that makes American democracy work.

Genres: Textbooks, Nonfiction, Politics

555 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ellie]

read this for class

[Kortney]

eh

[Deanna]

This is a textbook I read for a Political Science class. Very informative and not overly dry.

[Melina S]

Meh. It is what it is.

[Kathleen]

I read this for my American Politics class. We did not read every single chapter, but most of them. This book was copyrighted in 2013 and discusses everything up to the 2012 elections, though I was dying to know what the authors interpretation of the 2014 ones was. Oh well, I guess that will be in the 4th edition. I am sorry that I did not read the chapter on the Supreme Court though. I should have read it, but ran out of time and never got around to it before I mailed it back to Barnes and Noble (I rented it).
Anyway, the book was interesting and definitely written with passion. It was detailed and took a pretty optimistic view of American politics. The whole thing was upbeat and presented lots of evidence to back up all the claims. As a textbook for a political science class, you could do way worse. It was enjoyable and made the class for me.