We the People: An Introduction to American Politics

by Benjamin Ginsberg, Theodore J. Lowi, Margaret Weir

Politics is relevant.

We the People is the best text for showing students that politics is relevant to their lives and that political participation matters—especially in the digital age. New coauthor Caroline Tolbert brings expertise in political behavior to deep revisions of key chapters, and new Digital Citizens boxes highlight the role of new media in politics.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, School, College, Political Science, Textbooks

896 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1000

About the author

Benjamin Ginsberg is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science, Director of the Washington Center for the Study of American Government, and Chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author or coauthor of 20 books including Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, Politics by Other Means, The Consequences of Consent, and The Captive Public. Before joining the Hopkins faculty in 1992, Ginsberg was Professor of Government at Cornell University. His most recent book is The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. Ginsberg’s published research focuses on political development, presidential politics, participation, and money in politics.

Reviews

[Brittain *Needs a Nap and a Drink*]

I...

I can't believe it...

I've actually read a whole textbook cover to cover.



Maybe I'll review this one later. You know, after the exam this book has spawned.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

For you poor souls dealing with Online Government/US Government out there: DO THE QUIZZES AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER! They are superbly helpful and may mimic questions you'll encounter again. Also, the following links all have very good practice questions to help you breeze through the course:

https://quizlet.com/Yesnataliee
https://quizlet.com/Viiry_/folders/go...
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/polis...

These question sets are lifesavers. No joke. Whoever made these deserves to be repeatedly commended for their efforts.

[Acenith Claassen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book to be fairly informative. What bothered me was the inaccurate characterization of conservatives throughout, and that the book is written from a left of center rather than an unbiased perspective.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a textbook on American Politics. It covers pretty much every subject you would expect to find in a textbook on politics. If you have to read a textbook on American politics, this will do fine, but as you would imagine, it can be dry and boring.

[A.J. Barlow]

Read it for school. It wasn’t the worst textbook I’ve ever read, but it was kinda boring and SOOOO LOONGGG

[Ian Salter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very neutral and fairly up to date as of my reading. I found a couple instances where the authors suspended their neutrality when the textbook was clearly not trying to be in a persuasive style, which kind of pissed me off but I don't wanna get into that lol.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent textbook. It was very up-to-date, which was nice, but the writing was rather mediocre and it was unclear at times. My biggest problem with this book is that it wasn't very neutral - it made an attempt, but you could tell that the author was a liberal (and I'm not one of those crazy conservatives who thinks everything but the Bible is liberal propaganda - I'm super liberal myself, but I still value neutrality in textbooks). The author would sometimes clearly promote certain ideas over others - for instance, the book was really positive about political parties and REALLY negative about the scope of presidential power -- for example, the last sentence in the Presidency chapter was "Americans of the founding generation feared that unchecked presidential power would lead to monocracy- a republican form of monarchy without a king. Have we not taken more than one step in that direction? Inevitably, we will pay a price for our undemocratic politics." This concerns me even more after seeing that the author also wrote a book about how the president is too powerful - clearly, he has strong opinions on the matter that clouded his objectivity in writing the textbook. And while I did like that the book discussed the 2008 election in depth, it also used 2008 as an example for things like voter turnout and party identification and such that I don't think is the best example, since the 2008 election was extraordinary and unique and not typical of American elections.

So, not the worst American Politics textbook, but not the best either. The visuals are great and there are some really interesting graphs, but some of the information is a little suspect.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only problem I had using this in the classroom was with the last chapter on foreign policy. To quote Ike:

"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Hopefully, future iterations of this textbook will correct the over-emphasis on the Bush Doctrine in chapter 14. Some glaring omissions: "international law" and the Nuremberg Principles are not mentioned at all. It's as if the editors caved to the neocons among their collaborators and reviewers.

The textbook is very good on the whole, with relevant quizzes and key terms listed for each chapter, and interactive online tools for each chapter, through the website (free to use) associated with the textbook. Other than the exception noted above, good tone and balance throughout. I'll be using it again.

[Jonathan Roller · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a very informative book, however I felt the irony as it talked about how political influence can be made through education and then proceeds throughout the book to present information with a bias. I believe that textbooks shouldn’t have bias and instead present information and allow students to critically think about whether the information presented was wrong or right. Especially a textbook for a college level course.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a political science class, very informative

[C.B. Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, for a textbook! A little repetitive, though.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard College level textbook - an introduction into American Politics. I bought it mainly as a reference book which it does an adequate job.

It's compact size is perfect for desktop reference and review. In addition to having copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the textbook also has review questions for the reader to challenge themselves.

It extensively covers:

** Citizenship and Government - how government affects our lives, our identities, our ideals

** Our Founding and the Constitution - How Political conflicts shaped the first founding, how the failure of the articles attributed to the second founding, what the Constitution created, and how difficult ratification was

** Federalism - How it shaped American politics and how the definition changed radically over time

** Civil Liberties and Civil Rights - Students will be surprised to learn that those who opposed the Constitution paved the way for the Bill of Rights. This section also provides coverage of the first amendment, how the second amendment protects gun owners, how criminals are afforded due process by the constitution, the right to privacy, Civil Rights protections and struggles, and online privacy is also covered.

** The Role of the Media in Society as well as social media

** Political Parties, Participation and Elections - how political parties rose from the electoral process, the two-party system, political participation in traditional and online forms, as well as explaining why political party loyalty is important

** Interest Groups - This section also covers pluralist and elitist views, the increase of special interest groups, as well as the strategies used

** Congress - how the congress represents the people, how it is shaped by party, explanation of how a bill becomes law, the factors that leads congress to their decisions, and the other roles that congress has

** The Presidency - where the President gets his/her powers, institutional resources

** Bureaucracy - how it improves efficiency, how the Executive Branch is organized, and who controls the bureaucracy

** Federal Courts - how the legal system settles disputes, the different courts and what cases they hear, the Supreme Court and its powers

** Domestic Policy - Public Policy = Government Coercion, how the techniques of making policy are control, social policy and welfare, poverty, and social spending is also explored.

** Foreign Policy - this section ends the book covering: security based on military strength, how American foreign policy is shaped by both Government and non-Government actors, the tools of American Foreign policy, and using technology to topple governments citing the Case of Egypt.

For pleasure reading - it is a boring read. However, for review and reference - it does the job it was written to do.

[Cor · Rating 2 out of 5]

13th edition review:
Of course I had to spend $$$ on the "latest" version of this US Gov textbook which meant each chapter was padded with photos and references to the Trump administration, COVID-19 Pandemic and "social media" safety tools. After realizing all of this was meaningless to our course content I don't understand why we weren't given a more paired down cheaper version of US Government basics + history. Obviously this is my beef with the state of college textbooks but still, this is a $135+ textbook yet it reads like a collection of Khan Academy lessons intermixed with photo's taken from the last couple years but ended up meaning the first 5-7 pages of each chapter were completely unnecessary.

Because this book was so absurdly expensive AND the print copies were all sold out/rented out I had to rent a digital copy. This was one of the worst ebook designs I've come across in a while. The text was often clunky and the table of contents didn't give good hierarchy to the chapters and sections which meant navigating the whole ebook was difficult because it looked like one long book full of 200+ chapters. Also because of all the large photos used it took up way to much room per "page" and really messed up the reading experience.

The actual information in the textbook was good but this feels like the bare minimum compared to everything else. The most important parts are the glossary of each chapter and the constitutional documents at the back.

[Kaitlyn Crozier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource on American politics. Did I want to read this? Nope. But I finally finished political science years after avoiding it in college. Yay me! (Patting myself on the back)
It’s a nice textbook and the chapter quizzes are useful!
Also, when taking quizzes for your class, the index is super helpful 👌🏼

[Tori · Rating 2 out of 5]

FINALLY!! I read a textbook cover to cover!! AHH

[Jenny Cameron Paulsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for a textbook.

[Stevie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book pulled through for all my cramming nights and will probably to continue to pull through until the end of my finals.

[Jim Twombly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid textbook with great support materials for faculty. Love that it comes closer than many texts to following our short term (12 week) schedule than most available texts.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit liberal-leaning, but overall a good book.

[Kinnear Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually very good and engaging despite the topic.

[Devin Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I actually just finish this textbook front to back??

[Ariana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for my American Government class at Wake Tech. There are some small Left leaning biases in it.

[S1lly_K1tt3n · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very educational book to introduce politics, and how to gain or perceived political knowledge. Mostly read it for a school assignment. Plan to give it another read to make a fair judgment.

[Shun · Rating 5 out of 5]

another well-written textbook

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no love for Political Science, but this text was helpful in understanding what was going on

[N. Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for my federal government class... In fact, I nearly read it 2 times through and some of the chapters I read 3 times. It's very well organized, containing the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, a lot of all the presidents, etc. in the back. Most students didn't know about this... unfortunately for them. lol I will caution that the quizzes in the back of the chapters have a misprint in the answer key. So please do not memorize the answers or you'll be shooting yourself in the foot!

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as text books go, this one was okay. The chapters were structured really well and the information was explained alright. Mt biggest probalem with this textbook was that there were times when the sentences were needlessly complex. I found myself engaged and focused one moment and completely spaced out the next. When I reread the part I spaced out, it was usually worded badly. Still, I learned a lot and the web site that goes with it provides some great study tools as well.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I first began reading this book I didn't think it was so bad. It was modern and updated, had lots of pictures and colors and was nicely organized. As I read through it ( I had to read the ENTIRE book for school) I began to get to the point where I dreaded even touching it. It was hard to comprehend at times and added too many unnecessary details. Worst of all there were typos EVERYWHERE.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second choice book to use as a textbook for Intro to AP. It seems very engaging and it emphasizes student involvement in politics.

But it's not very structural, critical, or comparative. And those are things that I think a textbook should be.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strangely, I did the worst on the assigned quizzes for chapters that I found most interesting. Not sure how that worked out. Textbooks are textbooks. This one is okay for basic understanding of government and politics.