The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Government and Politics

by Franco Scardino

The governed must know their government Understanding how our government functions and the political forces that influence it is vital for all Americans. As a comprehensive overview and history of the subject, this book is designed to help anyone interested in learning about our government and the origins of its complex inner workings, our political system, and key elements that have affected our growth as a nation—all while serving as the best supplementary reading a student can get.• Author is an experienced Advanced Placement teacher• Students looking to take AP exams are a ready audience-along with citizenship applicants and CNN junkies• Large renewable market• Suitable as supplemental reading for coursework

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Government, Education

629 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Curt Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should read this

With civics education seeming to be a no show in most educational systems, we have lost the knowledge concerning our system of government. It should not be left to the biased media of our age to tell us why our government is. Read this book and decide for yourself. Then get involved and VOTE

[mairiachi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so so glad our class went through this book. It's a great group read, for those of you who want to learn more about politics but don't know if they should do it alone or not. I probably would have missed a lot of what it was talking about if we hadn't been going through it together and bringing up questions as we read. If you want to really get something out of it, take it slowly, really think about what it says, and don't worry about it if you don't get everything they're talking about.

I loved how simple the book is, it's not too confusing, and it's unbiased from what I could tell. I love how it presents everyone's concerns and beliefs and doesn't say which one is right, but says here are the strong arguments for x, here are the weak arguments for x. Here's what would benefit from x, here's what would suffer from x. Here is who is for x, here is who is against x. Here is why those people are for/against x. You get the idea, it's very factual, practical, and straightforward and I really appreciated that. Plus, they cover more than just government, they do a lot of "social" things, so that it's not all about law and politicians, it's also about how society changes this or that, and I don't really know how to explain it plus I'm terrible at writing reviews, so just go ahead and find a review that's concise and interesting :P

[Lensey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest with you, I have retained very little of what I learned in school about the U.S. government. And since knowledge is power, I read this book to refresh my memory. It gave me exactly what I needed: an overview of each of the branches of government and what their responsibilities are, a review of the Constitution itself, a synopsis of political parties and how they work, and an overview of the election process. The format is divided up well and easy to read. I enjoyed the book and feel like I have a better understanding of how our government works. Some of the information is dated, as it was written in 2009, but for the most part the book is spot-on. I'm glad I picked this one up.

[Monica E Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2020 The Next Election

I chose this rating because the content is dry. The author did a good job of keeping it organized and expanded my knowledge of the structure, function and execution of government and policy in the US.

[Kate Hornstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you had civics in 8th grade, you probably don't need this book. This edition is a bit dated, but the basics still hold true.

[Melissa Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. It had a lot of details, but was good.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated this book for its breadth and cynicism. Many books on American government present it as though it works as it appears on paper and confine themselves to the Constitution. This book goes frankly into the importance of money, ideology, acts and executive orders that have altered the political process as much as constitutional amendments, and other stuff around the edges of the topic that made me feel like I could understand how government really works the way I see and experience it as opposed to the vague idealism/propaganda presented in high school poli-sci.

There were, however, a few sections where the author and/or editor obviously fell asleep at the wheel, with disjointed sentences, acronyms without antecedents, weird bursts of emotionalism or partisanship, and other obvious, sloppy writing errors.

[Kaelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this as a part of my school curriculum, but I feel that it was a helpful addition. It put some of the more complex and harder-to-understand concepts in easy-to-follow language. I definitely understand our government better because of this book!

[Remy · Rating 2 out of 5]

So boring and dull, lol...we read it in our homeschool, but I couldn't wait to be done with it. It's thorough and informative, but surely there is something better out there for this topic!!

[William Rabjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful book for understanding how our government is structured and its political parties.

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
I really enjoyed this format of book. The information was given in a nice way. I learned a lot and I quite enjoyed reading this.

[Cindy]

Thought it was time to refresh my memory so I can be more involved.

[Daniel McCort · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lifeless and offensively elementary.