American Government and Politics Today, 2003-2004 Edition (with InfoTrac and CD-ROM) - Hardcover

Schmidt, Steffen W.; Shelley, Mack C.; Bardes, Barbara A.

3.21

39 ratings by Goodreads

9780534592561: American Government and Politics Today, 2003-2004 Edition (with InfoTrac and CD-ROM)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0534592562 ISBN 13: 9780534592561

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2002

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AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS TODAY helps students experience the excitement that comes from active, informed citizenship. Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes' landmark text is renowned nationwide for its balanced, unbiased, comprehensive, and up-to-date coverage of constitutional, governmental, political, social, and economic structures and processes. The overriding theme of the book is the importance of informed active citizenship, and the pedagogy underscores this theme by soliciting critical thinking about political issues and encouraging students to become involved the political process. With keen awareness of its audience, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS TODAY incorporates current examples, the Internet, and other media to stimulate learning and excitement about American government. This truly interactive text gives students more than reading material; it gives them tools to become good citizens.

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About the Author:

Steffen W. Schmidt is a professor of political science at Iowa State University. He grew up in Colombia, South America, and has studied in Colombia, Switzerland, and France. He has a B.A. from Rollins College and obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York, in public law and government. Schmidt has published fourteen books and over one hundred and thirty articles in scholarly journals and is the recipient of numerous prestigious teaching prizes, including the Amoco Award for Lifetime Career Achievement in Teaching and the Teacher of the Year award. He is a pioneer in the use of web-based and real-time video courses and is a member of the American Political Science Association's section on Computers and Multimedia. He is known as "Dr. Politics" for his extensive commentary on US politics in US and international media. He is a weekly blogger for Gannett, comments on CNN en Espanol and Univision as well as WNYC, New York. He's on Facebook (SteffenWSchmidt) and Twitter (DrPolitics).

Review:

"To me the greatest strength of the text is its comprehensiveness; it does cover more American Government material and in greater depth than any text I have used thus far. It is also well organized with the chapter outline to start with and the chapter summaries at the end. It helps the student with the key terms and definitions in the margins and the internet is well integrated into the chapters. Another great strength of the book is the great number of pedagogical features, especially the "what if," "which side are you on?" and global view boxes. As already commented upon, I think the students do enjoy reading these and are more likely to get involved with the material and the course because of them."

"The book is very current. In fact, some parts of it read like a newspaper. An example would be the blue ink modifications to the Constitution in chapter 2. The book is very meticulous. An excellent example is the discussion on page 430. The authors make the following statement...Since the early twentieth century, presidents have spoken more to the public and less to Congress. Many authors would have let the statement stand without any verification. However SSB follows this up with evidence from Samuel Kernell's Going Public, which has become one of the definitive works on presidential leadership. The authors make good use of the Internet. I am not comfortable with the Internet as a research tool. However, it is with us and students will use it. I also appreciate that a good web site is worth two days searching the library. This books takes pains to sort through the cyber jungle leading students to sites containing information as reliable and valid at they will find anywhere, as opposed to 'rant and rave' home pages."

"The strengths of the text are its readability, its flexibility, and currency. It deals with contemporary topics in an easy to understand manner, and provides the instructor with a variety of manners in which to use the text and have the student delve into issues and ideas. In the course of the text the student learns the main concepts, how those ideas apply today, and how s/he can be a political participant."

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