Global Politics

by Andrew Heywood

This book is a major new introduction to international relations/global politics. Written by a leading textbook author, it is engaging, stimulating and forward-looking, covering all the topics and theory students require at an introductory level.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science, International Relations, Business, Education, History

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Andrew Heywood is the leading writer of politics textbooks in the UK, and an AS and A Level Chief Examiner in Government and Politics. He was Vice Principal of Croydon College and had previously been Director of Studies at Orpington College. He has had over 20 years experience as a Head of Politics and a politics lecturer. Andrew Heywood currently works as a freelance author and consultant.

Reviews

[Zainab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled on Global Politics when a friend of mine and I decided to upload all the ebooks we had on shared cloud storage. 'Global Politics' sounded like a typical textbook name for IR students, but when I went through the contents and the structure of the book, I had to read it. Loved the brief essays spread throughout the book that deconstruct chunks of global histories through opposing IR/sociological perspectives and theories.
Highly recommended for readers interested in global politics, International Relations, Political Science, and Modern History.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book that covers a lot of ground, but never goes in-depth. Granted, it is an introductory book that actually might be more akin to an encyclopedia than to a scholarly work, but I expected a little more. The writing is simple enough to be understood by pre-schoolers, and words that should be common knowledge (e.g. border, military, etc.) are often defined in the margins, which is somehow a bit insulting. If you read the whole thing you probably have a pretty good idea of what political science is all about, but if you're going to use it like an encyclopedia you might be better off browsing Wikipedia.

[emus biggest fan · Rating 1 out of 5]

didn't actually read this but one star because global politics causes me physical and mental pain.

[Khuram Shahzad · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was like a bank/collection of op-ed articles written on global political affairs. Mostly writer focuses on current affairs and some recent past events for his analysis. The tone is highly objective, academic, and analytical. The other positive thing which I have observed is that it is well structured. Every chapter has a very trimmed introductory paragraph and a summary at the end. Plus debating sections are awesome and usually, they provide you with the gist of the whole chapter.

The negative aspect of this book is that it does not explain most of the basic concepts properly. For some of those concepts, only definitions are given at the sides. It sometimes makes it difficult to read as every sentence contains relevant terminologies. Secondly, some of the important criticisms are acknowledged just as perceptions without mentioning any theorist. For example, when it says that another perception about SCO is that it is created in order to balance NATO, the writer doesn't mention any source for that. That makes it difficult for someone to second that narrative. But overall it's a treasure.

[Billy Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for an introduction to international relations and helpful with theory and definitions for A levels but it's a broad introduction to the whole topic. Decent for referencing but if you want to delve into a particular topic you'll need to look elsewhere.

[Barış Kılboz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bana göre kavramları tam kıvamında ve seviyesinde veren, fazla derine inmeyen ama çok yüzeysel de göstermeyen kararında bir kitap. Özellikle kitabın şuanki siyasette küreselleşmenin nasıl olduğunu çok net bir şekilde anlatması hoşuma gitti.

[Pooja Banga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a major new introduction to international relations/global politics. Written by a leading textbook author, it is engaging, stimulating and forward-looking, covering all the topics and theory students require at an introductory level.

[Aachal Bidwai · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to skim through but not as edgy as it should be if your aim is to dive into International Politics. Use it as a starter to your five meal world studies course.

[Faizan Nabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives you a completly neutral and in depth perespective of international relations and politics.

[Nubar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of our main reading materials for a 1st year Global Politics course at my university. I did not finish reading this yet as the semester did not end, however, I still want to write a review on its style. I am not going to discuss any particular chapter but rather give general opinions on the format, context and ideas presented.

Andrew Heywood, I think, gives a very American (meaning the United States of America) understanding of world politics. even though he tries to not do that. He seems to have written this book with an American audience in mind, therefore, explains concepts catering to an American worlview. And that is not a mistake as I believe this book is supposed to be for usage in higher education at American universities. Considering that I am studying outside of North America, the writing appears as a little bit odd to me.

His writing is too simplistic. In fact it is weirdly both too simplistic for a native speaker of the language (assuming that he has written this for US Americans, that is peculiar) and too linguistically diffficult to understand for a non-native English speaker. To elaborate: he uses hard words, complex syntax and a very broad vocabulary when explaining most concepts. This is ofcourse normal for a book that is supposed to spark intellectual vigour in students and make them contemplate on issues. And I would not have anything to say about this, however, he, whilst using an advanced formatting and style, keeps the content of his explanations and definitions very simple. He does not go deep on any of the issues, which is fine for an introductory book, but I can not comprehend how this is supposed to give students information any other than the surface level knowledge they already have. At least I have this knowledge, but those students who do not have it cannot get it either because they also cannot comprehend the words that are being said due to the complexity. My point is that Heywood has written a book for the comprehension of someone with sufficient knowledge of the language and concepts but has written it about things that the aforamentioned intended audience would know.

That's it.

[enta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Başucu kitabı,başvuru kitabı ve biraz da Hikmet Kırık

[Aneeba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice

[Siddhidatri Pande · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the must reads for getting better insights on Geopolitics. This book helped me in clarifying a lot of concepts with an interesting methodology to aid learning.

[lavignebrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

comprehensive

[Suhail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well described theories of IR.

[Esra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazarın dili güzel ve açıklayıcı konular anlaşılır

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for my Introduction to International Studies course parallel to a discussion by my professor expounding on some topics.

I would imagine this book is ideal for the complete neophyte of a majority of the vast array of topics covered by Heywood. In other words, this book assumes, for the most part, the utter lack of knowledge of the reader. That said, I imagine myself going back to this book occasionally for a quick refresher on topics of which I do not have as good a grasp.

In short: trusty, but not as concise as I wanted, would refer to occasionally.

[Jaspreet Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to understand the nuances of global politics and international relations. It will change your perspective to look at IR. The best part is that it covers all the current events ranging from 2008 Crisis to Debt vs Austerity debate. As usual, Heywood has written in a simple, easy to understand student friendly language. It is compulsory for Political Science Optional in CSE. But i would suggest reading it even for GS and Essay.

[liv (≧▽≦) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook gives a good beginning insite into the basics of politics and international relations. Unfortunately it does not go in depth on any specific topics however that was sort of expected just because of the amount of topics covered in the book. I wouldnt recommend to year it just because, but its not a bad read if you are prescribed it for Uni.

[Danijela Jerković · Rating 5 out of 5]

Global Politics (Palgrave Foundations)
by Andrew Heywood

Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people.
~Paul Wellstone

[vik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic IR textbook. And good, in that. Basic, I repeat.

[SUMAYA]

I want to read because I have the IP

[Mav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro to international politics

[Sangya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very good book to read to get a holistic view of the subject. The book is well detailed and tries to be objective by providing information of both sides.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant 'textbook' for my Government and Politics A level!