Approaching Democracy

by Larry Berman, Bruce Allen Murphy

Updated in a new 7th edition this book is organized around the evolving nature of the American experiment in democratic government. With a clear and compelling central theme this book provides the theory and basics of American political science as well as the nation's political history.

This book covers the foundations, institutions, and process of American democracy with a clear and relevant approach in an easily readable format. It sharpens the critical thinking skills needed to analyze these evolving relationships through its multitude of new critical thinking questions and timelines.

Genres: Textbooks, Political Science, Reference

624 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Larry Berman (PhD, Princeton) is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and founding Dean of the Georgia State Honors College.

His books include Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt Jr. (2012), Perfect Spy: The incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An (2007), No Peace, No Honor (2001), Lyndon Johnson War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam (1989), and Planning A Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam (1982). Berman is currently researching for his next book, A Slow Walk with Death: The Lingering Effects of Agent Orange.

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a lot of garbage. It had tons of typos (things like double commas,, misplaced apostrophe's, spaces in between words and punctuation , misspellnigs on almost every page). But more importantly (to me), it contained factual inaccuracies and partial truths, things that you might catch if you're vigilant & thinking critically but would probably wash over you otherwise. It's a college textbook and it's just inexcusable to fill a textbook for a required course--often the only course that a given student will take on our government--with that kind of trash. I feel like this wouldn't happen so much if there wasn't a huge rush to get out THE NEXT EDITION OMG or something.

Anyway, I gave it two stars because I bought it with scholarship money and when the class was over I was able to sell it for $70 and I bought myself an awesome fountain pen and a set of Beatrix Potter postcards with that money, so I associate this book with free fountain pens & postcards, which are some of my favorite things...