What do you think?
Rate this book
American Politics: A Field Guide
A groundbreaking new approach builds skills for critical thinking and effective citizen engagement.
Years of teaching and participating in politics have shown Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox that students learn more if they’re engaged by what they’re learning, and they can put what they’re learning into practice by understanding how to participate. These principles come together in American A Field Guide. This unique text captivates students with provocative questions while helping to build the skills necessary for effective citizen engagement and political participation. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.
Years of teaching and participating in politics have shown Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox that students learn more if they’re engaged by what they’re learning, and they can put what they’re learning into practice by understanding how to participate. These principles come together in American A Field Guide. This unique text captivates students with provocative questions while helping to build the skills necessary for effective citizen engagement and political participation. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.
- GenresPhilosophy
1918 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2023
6 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 2, 2025
This book grows on you. By the time I was done, I could not give it less than 5 stars. Let me give details.
1) Organization: It's so nicely organized! First, the "chapters" (or segments, as they call them) are small (12 pages max) and easily read in one sitting. Second, they are mostly independent, which means you can read the book à la carte. For example, it was easy for me to read only the ~2/3 of the book that seemed interesting to me. Third, each segment addresses a specific question. So, you know when you're done with a section (when you know the answer to the question). Most importantly, though, it helps you tie all the information under that question, which helps you to create coherence in your head.
2) Writing Style and Content: The prose is engaging and not dry at all. It reads almost like a magazine, but obviously with much better content. Speaking of the content, the book has _tons_ of illuminating quantitative data, presented in all kinds of figures. Somehow, however, the authors succeeded in not making the book boring. I think this has two confounding factors. First, the choice of the data: you will honestly rarely find a plot or table you won't want to look at (and I'm generally someone who doesn't like to look at plots and tables). Second, the authors always try to put the numbers in perspective (e.g., $32 trillion-the size of the U.S. national debt-is larger than the economies of China, Germany, and Japan combined).
3) Unbiased: Ok, let me upfront here. They authors may be Democrats (statistically speaking, this is almost certainly the case). Nevertheless, I couldn't see basically any kind of bias. They seem equally supportive and critical to each party. The lack of bias also includes U.S. in general. Both of the authors are American, and hey this is about American politics. But, the authors are not "soft" towards the U.S., and I love it! They are also not soft with your hopes (sorry!). They tell you directly that many reforms and improvements will almost certainly not happen.
Best segments (IMHO): For me there's a clear winner for the best segment; #GenderEquality. The authors start with standard plots on gender inequality, which are seemingly striking, but hide confounding factors. And then, they go into interpretations. And boy, do they nail it! Their analysis is so illuminating and unique! If there's one segment that shows lack of bias (especially if we assume they're left-leaning), it would be this for sure! But also, it's the segment with the most unique information.
Other than that, I liked their description of how the Supreme Court got its power and the narration of Marbury v. Madison. This is such a convoluted case, and the authors did a decent (not amazing) job at explaining the events. Decent in this case is exceptional because it's very hard to find any kind of coherent info on it online.
Last but not least, here are some things that could be improved:
- I wasn't able to find a comprehensive description of the electoral process for Congress (both House and Senate). It's a big omission.
- I would like a little more detailed table of contents that includes the sub-sub-headings, because they tend to be useful.
- As I said above, most of the plots and tables are quite interesting, even on their own. I would like a list of figures and tables so that I can quickly go through them.
1) Organization: It's so nicely organized! First, the "chapters" (or segments, as they call them) are small (12 pages max) and easily read in one sitting. Second, they are mostly independent, which means you can read the book à la carte. For example, it was easy for me to read only the ~2/3 of the book that seemed interesting to me. Third, each segment addresses a specific question. So, you know when you're done with a section (when you know the answer to the question). Most importantly, though, it helps you tie all the information under that question, which helps you to create coherence in your head.
2) Writing Style and Content: The prose is engaging and not dry at all. It reads almost like a magazine, but obviously with much better content. Speaking of the content, the book has _tons_ of illuminating quantitative data, presented in all kinds of figures. Somehow, however, the authors succeeded in not making the book boring. I think this has two confounding factors. First, the choice of the data: you will honestly rarely find a plot or table you won't want to look at (and I'm generally someone who doesn't like to look at plots and tables). Second, the authors always try to put the numbers in perspective (e.g., $32 trillion-the size of the U.S. national debt-is larger than the economies of China, Germany, and Japan combined).
3) Unbiased: Ok, let me upfront here. They authors may be Democrats (statistically speaking, this is almost certainly the case). Nevertheless, I couldn't see basically any kind of bias. They seem equally supportive and critical to each party. The lack of bias also includes U.S. in general. Both of the authors are American, and hey this is about American politics. But, the authors are not "soft" towards the U.S., and I love it! They are also not soft with your hopes (sorry!). They tell you directly that many reforms and improvements will almost certainly not happen.
Best segments (IMHO): For me there's a clear winner for the best segment; #GenderEquality. The authors start with standard plots on gender inequality, which are seemingly striking, but hide confounding factors. And then, they go into interpretations. And boy, do they nail it! Their analysis is so illuminating and unique! If there's one segment that shows lack of bias (especially if we assume they're left-leaning), it would be this for sure! But also, it's the segment with the most unique information.
Other than that, I liked their description of how the Supreme Court got its power and the narration of Marbury v. Madison. This is such a convoluted case, and the authors did a decent (not amazing) job at explaining the events. Decent in this case is exceptional because it's very hard to find any kind of coherent info on it online.
Last but not least, here are some things that could be improved:
- I wasn't able to find a comprehensive description of the electoral process for Congress (both House and Senate). It's a big omission.
- I would like a little more detailed table of contents that includes the sub-sub-headings, because they tend to be useful.
- As I said above, most of the plots and tables are quite interesting, even on their own. I would like a list of figures and tables so that I can quickly go through them.
May 30, 2024
This is a textbook I read in a politics class, and it does an excellent job at explaining complex political structures in simple, easy words. I’d recommend to anyone who wants a handbook for understanding basic political concepts.
November 17, 2024
Not a fan of Lawless. A new edition would be helpful as lots of the data is out of date. She tries to be funny and creative, but it is really just politics 101. She sells the book to students in her lecture class. The book is basically a book version of her slides.
June 1, 2023
Read for POLI 100. For a political science textbook, it was rather engaging.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews