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By the People: Debating American Government

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ENGAGE. THINK. DEBATE.

Challenge your students to ENGAGE in the conversation and process; THINK about the ideas, history, structure, and function; and DEBATE the merits of American government and politics in the 21st century.

In a storytelling approach that weaves contemporary examples together with historical context, By the Debating American Government explores the themes and ideas that drive the great debates in American government and politics. It introduces students to big questions like Who governs? How
does our system of government work? What does government do? and Who are we? By challenging students with these questions, the text gets them to think about, engage with, and debate the merits of U.S. government and politics.

ENGAGE

* "By the Numbers" boxes containing fun facts help frame the quizzical reality of American politics and government

* "Comparing Nations" boxes discuss how other nations operate their courts, legislatures, media, and elections and help students understand what is vital and distinctive about the U.S.

* "See For Yourself" features enable students to connect with the click of a smart phone to videos and other interactive online content

THINK

* Chapter Two introduces students to seven key American ideas, which are revisited throughout the text

* "The Bottom Line" summaries conclude each chapter section, underscoring the most important aspects of the discussion

DEBATE

* "What Do You Think?" boxes encourage students to use their critical-thinking skills and debate issues in American government

* Four major themes, in the form of questions to spark debate, are presented to students in Chapter One and appear throughout the text

ENSURING STUDENT SUCCESS
We offer qualified adopters a comprehensive ancillary

Dashboard

Online homework made easy! Tired of learning management systems that promise the world but are too difficult to use? Oxford offers you Dashboard, a simply, nationally hosted, online learning course--including study, review, interactive, and assessment materials--in an easy-to-use system that
requires less than fifteen minutes to master. Assignment and assessment results flow into a straightforward, color-coded gradebook, allowing you a clear view into your students' progress. The system works on every major platform and device, including mobile devices.

Only $5 with the price of a new book! Also available for sale on its own. Contact your local OUP representative to order By the People + the Access Code Card for Dashboard.

Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/morone

For instructors, this site includes the teaching tools described below. For students, it offers a number of study tools including learning objectives, key-concept summaries, quizzes and essay questions, web activities, and web links.

Instructor's Resource Manual with Test Bank

Computerized Test Using the test authoring and management tool Diploma, this computerized test bank is designed for both novice and advanced users.

PowerPoint-based Each chapter's slide deck includes a succinct chapter outline and incorporates relevant chapter graphics. Available on the Instructor's Resource CD and as a download online.

Instructor's Resource This includes the Instructor's Resource Manual with Tests, the Computerized Test Bank, the PowerPoint-based slides, and the graphics from the text.

Now Learning American Government Through This concise print supplement provides a variety of suggested films that illustrate concepts covered in the text. It is available in both a student and an instructor version and can be packaged with By The People for free.

CNN Video Guide

Course Cartridges

Packaging Options

Adopters of By The People can package any Oxford University Press book with the text for a 20% savings off the total package price. See our many trade and scholarly offerings at www.oup.com/us, then contact your local OUP sales representative to request a package ISBN. In addition, any title from
the Very Short Introduction Series, a collection of brief books offering succinct introductions to a variety of topics, can be packaged for FREE.

784 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2013

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About the author

James A. Morone

20 books5 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Profile Image for k8reads.
167 reviews5 followers
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November 13, 2022
Yes I am counting my college textbook as a book read. I didn’t read this version but it’s the only one I could find
Profile Image for Ruth Dahl.
467 reviews
March 11, 2021
read for school and I'm getting the goodreads credit on my reading challenge, dangnabbit.

Pretty basic overview of the branches and history of the U.S. Government. Not too boring. I might have liked the textbook more if my teacher this term had actually taught, ya know?
Profile Image for Scott.
296 reviews10 followers
December 31, 2017
Pretty good for a textbook. It did a decent job of presenting different perspectives on the various topics (civil liberties, the federal bureaucracy, the three branches of government, etc.). The authors seem to write from center-left assumptions (especially evident in the material on the various civil rights issues).
Profile Image for _Liebert.
277 reviews2 followers
December 18, 2025
DNF. Started for a class which i had my final for last week; if I did well it was not at all thanks to this book. Don't care for it at all. Centrist bullshit, ie evilly phrasing sports discouse as "trans rights vs womans rights", and clearly has little interest in actual history as regards its whitewashing of most recent history of the past decades
Profile Image for IV.
286 reviews
December 6, 2022
Spent an entire semester reading about the entire system of American government and The Goldfinch is still the longest book I've read this year. Donna Tartt knew her impact was more important than our trade deficit, and who am I to deny it?
Profile Image for Lincoln.
42 reviews
February 4, 2024
আমেরিকার রাজনীতি সম্পর্কে জানতে অবশ্য পাঠ্য
Profile Image for Sophia.
5 reviews
May 5, 2022
Wonderful textbook. It even has a phone number and a website link. Wonderful discussion of elections and campaigns especially discussing the 2016 Trump Election and the 2016 Trump Administration. Here are some who were in the pictures
Christopher Lee Simmons
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)
David Perdue

Edit: It was bizarre that in my intro to American politics course in university that the professor assigned a textbook of American government intro - there's a big difference between a American politics course and an American government course. A government course relies less on intuition and less on theory and less on abstraction, which means you have to deeply understand a small number of topics chosen like a free response exam/test, rather than a "inch deep, mile wide" approach of government course that uses multiple choice. However, I took a government course in high school, and though the politics course in university was 99% similar, I admit, I understand why this book was chosen over (a intro to politics) textbook. I think it is a big textbook, and could be shortened. I'm not saying it is better to cover less material, but I have read prep books (like AP US Government, Barrons, Princeton Review, Kaplan, Crash course, 5) and they tend to summarize it so you don't waste time.
Profile Image for Savannah  Jackson .
165 reviews3 followers
February 19, 2020
As far as required text books, not mad at it. I’ll give it a 4 stars for not being completely dry, good and fairly objective. There was some dry humor tucked in to decipher too. I’ve been reading ahead to get up on my school and I’m not sure if this same company is supplying testing materials or if my professors stuff isn’t going well with this in the way of test translation. That is my biggest qualm and I can’t say it’s this book is the cause for that issue, it could very well be me. Out of all my text books I’m reading, or have read this year, this was the best.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews

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