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By the People: Debating American Government, Brief Edition

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By the Debating American Government , Brief Fourth Edition, reflects the dynamism of American government and politics with superior teaching and learning tools that prepare students to ENGAGE , THINK , and DEBATE now more than ever before.

Using a storytelling approach that weaves commentary 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 encourages them to think about, engage with, and debate the merits of U.S. government and politics.

By the People includes an individual user code to access a wealth of interactive digital learning tools and student exercises.

648 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2013

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James A. Morone

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5 stars
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35 (33%)
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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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