Donald A. Ritchie, Richard C. Remy. This text, American Government 2e by Krutz and Waskiewicz, covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately beginning with the origins of each political construct, through its evolution in America, and trends into the future. have even added very impressive policy chapters (domestic and foreign) that you only see on occasion. The concepts are: growth of democracy, federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, civil liberties . It is as accurate as any standard, mainstream textbook on American government. You have a solid editing staff doing well to ensure a good syntax throughout the book. The headings and subheadings are appealing and provide the students with direction about what is coming next. I think it would be interesting to point out that when the USA had the chance to write other countries' constitutions, those new systems (Japan and West Germany) were created with parliamentary governments. Analysis of political institutions is well-balanced with substantial attention to the role of the individual and collective action. For every chapter a special effort could be made to fully integrate the experiences and writings of people of color. The material in the book is relevant and up to date with current politics and elected officials. The various appendixes include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Federalist 10 and 51 and a couple of other items. I liked this feature very much. This item: United States Government; Our Democracy, c 2018, 9780076681136, 0076681130. by McGraw-Hill Education Paperback . Verified. I didn't notice any serious grammar problems. As one would expect from a 771-page book, at times there are minor issues. As mentioned earlier, the book is reasonably up to date. This textbook is extremely comprehensive. I did not see anything that I would say is not accurate, as much as a couple items that need to be updated, but that is discussed below. And I don't. Geared as a unit in t The "Key terms" sections at the end of each chapter will be helpful to students who aren't sure whether they understand a particular term. line-height: 1.5 !important; Inclusion 6. Democracy 10 days 20 days Students analyze inherent tensions in American democracy between rights and freedoms and between promoting the public good and protecting individuals. I really liked that it had information from the 2016 election, as that is interesting to many students. I liked the film recommendations as references, although I wondered why they only came after three chapters (Intro, Congress, Courts)? Uses contemporary examples, but not in depth cases that may be needed in higher level courses. The updates for most chapters should be easily accomplished. Afterwards, the Bill of Rights was adopted to appease anti-federalist and it was ratified in an amendment process of Art. Overall, this was an excellent e-book. At the end of each chapter, the reader finds a glossary of key terms emphasized in the chapter. The material offered more than meets the appropriate standard for a textbook used in a first or second year course in American Government and Politics. I am impressed with the comprehensiveness of the textbook. The choice of pictures, and subjects is excellent throughout. There are a couple other places in the text where this is noticeable. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.--Preamble to the United States Constitution To report a technical problem with this Web site, please contact the Web Producer.Web . By reorganizing the information contained in the chapters, it will be easier for the reader to follow the data if it is in a table format. Much of your textbook is solid, such as Chapter 8 on the Media. I had no problems with navigation and saw no distortion of images and charts. While I am generally unfamiliar with how open-resource textbooks are supposed to be ideally positioned, the book provides excellent navigational tools on the left side of the bar that made it easy for me to find what I wanted. Seems quite well written. The text is culturally sensitive and consistently makes use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, etc. Outputs of Government) and chapters that fold under the broader categories (i.e. The text repeatedly incorporates up-to-date examples to illustrate its reasoning and explain how foundational themes relate to contemporary political developments. The text moves cleanly through concepts and important sections of each chapter. It covers all of the major topics an introductory text should cover and a few others as well. This is not a pervasive problem, however but an occasional one. Gerrymandering and redistricting is continually evolving. The authors updated the contents reflecting current events and political landscape. And the book is missing some introductory material on theory of collective action/game theory that I is included in other texts that I like to teach in my course. Not a major issue for $40, but annoying. As always, you have the flexibility to organize the course content as you like. I haven't seen anything quite like that before, and it's useful. The textbook is consistent and the framework is adhered to in each chapter. The United States is an indirect democracy or a republic. The topics seem to be organized in a clear, logical fashion, with no jarring transitions. Well-regarded global democracy indexessuch as Freedom House, 2 Varieties of Democracy, 3 and the Economist Intelligence Unit 4all show an erosion of American democracy since 2016. But there is never a number or way to identify the image/picture attached to the Figure reference. I never saw any problems with that concern. Reviewed by Matthew Jacobsmeier, Associate Professor, West Virginia University on 4/15/20, The book covers all the main topics that good introductory American Government textbooks typically cover and also includes chapters on topics that are not covered in detail in many textbooks. Consistently uses contemporary examples. The content is mostly up to date. Particularly well written is the "Approach to Foreign Policy, p. 650, especially, the "Classic Approach" and the more recent history of U.S. foreign policy. $47.96. Overall the book is extremely well edited. In my own courses, I am going to make up for this by assigning articles from CQ Researcher. For example, I may not get the chance to dedicate a whole class to elections but I can use sections of the chapter on elections in relation to civil rights, to Congress and to the Executive. The writing appears to be objective and factually correct. But by sticking to institutional logic, historical examples, and well-established topic controversies that are not going to go away (abortion, executive orders and the use of force, the civil service), the book does an excellent job at avoiding the publishing industrys penchant for planned obsolescence. The beginning of each module clearly identifies the learning objectives and is organized in such a way that it can be assigned at any point within the course as the instructor sees fit. Surely, it would be impossible to cover all the relevant material in this book, but its format does allow the instructor to be selective about the sections within each chapter to be emphasized. Important terms are underlined throughout the text making it easier for students to see the terms they should know for testing. One issue, however, that might be addressed is with the word "media." There is no unifying logic, but the lack of this epistemological perspective is one strength of the book. Those considering a new adaption for the introduction to American Government class would do well to give Kurtz et. One example to consider is presented in chapter 10, section 5 discussing the free speech rights of interest groups versus calls to regulate their activity. Below are the modifiedexcerpts that are assigned to you. It is both well researched and written. Plus, they blend with the gray boxes of the same color that are often used, otherwise effectively, to present case studies or specific examples. A downside of the online version is that the section, source and other links do not open in a new page, at least for me, which causes the reader to then backtrack with the effect that after a few instances some readers may not bother. Chapter 2. Identity politics should be an integral part of academic conversations and should provide opportunities to students to engage with difficult topics by using critical thinking strategies. United States Government: Our Democracy allows high school students to master an understanding of the structure, function, and powers of government at all levels. SyncBlasts:Online SyncBlasts permit teachers to leverage rich, multi-media reading and writing assignments focused on social studies and current event articles. However, this is a general U.S. government overview, so there is room for an instructor to supplement with additional primary sources, such as diary excerpts, speeches, poems and other genres. By comparison, another online textbook on American government (which will remain nameless) had a clear bias from the very first chapter. It is such a long and comprehensive textbook that possibly it might suffer from not having a clear and overriding theme. For example, on page 205 of the text, the author writes "With the rise of the Internet and social media, however, traditional media have become less powerful agents of this kind of socialization." Nearly every chapter has classic and current concepts to understand the evolution and development of institutions. Customize the learning experience for differentiated instruction using leveled reading, customizable assessments and worksheets, and flexible online learning tools. I found the text to be eminently user friendly with no issues what so ever navigating within the chapters. Key Terms are highlighted within a chapter and then are defined again in the at the end of the chapter which should help student recall for those who want to check along. The textbook content is thorough yet very clearly written. Instead the chapters information jumps around and the data needs organizing. I love the inclusion of recent current events. Today's must-read. I would have preferred more of this, but the book was adequate in this regard. For class, it would probably be necessary to inform students of the most important links to review. The text offers a consistent presentation of terms situated within a logical and approachable framework for college students. The textbook provides for a comprehensive overview of American Government. } Mrs Doering s Classroom Government Wikispaces. The charts, graphs and figures are well done and supplement the content. Grammar is as good as one would expect from a textbook from a commercial press. For example, Plato and Aristotle are not included in the further readings of the introductory chapter on government. I found the insertion of bold links in the middle of the text rather distracting. Of course, where to draw those lines is subjective and not all will see the value. As an introduction to American Government, the text covers the areas and ideas of the subject at a very comprehensive level. Pretty standard for many similar texts and courses. 35. In this textbook, you will find a built-in structure that helps you identify the key concept in every lesson and see it in action. There are numerous features that are used to help students engage with content (summaries, supplemental reading, graphics and break outs). I find first and second year college students (the levels I teach) have limited attention spans with regard dense text no matter how articulately written. Within each unit, the chapters are structured to provide connections between topics that build upon the prior chapter's learning objectives . In addition, the chapter on the Bureaucracy is placed in the "Outputs of Government" section alongside the chapters on domestic and foreign policy, rather than its more traditional place just after The Presidency. Bill of Rights Poster: File Size: 199 kb: File Type: pdf: . But that seems like a limitation of this medium, not of this particular textbook. This is a good choice as the textbook for beginning level political science courses. Our School" Reopening Plan; Daily Bulletin; S3 Grant; Principal's Message; Mission & Vision Statement; Bell Schedule; Contact Us; Policies & Procedures; . It was supplemented by a survey conducted March 7-14 among 1,466 adults on landlines and cellphones. The links that I checked were still functioning. The organization of topics conforms with what one finds in many other introductory level texts on American Government. The book is consistent, though I think its framework of effective engagement could have been implemented more consistently. An example is found in Chapter 13, Section 4 in a visually appealing graphic on the timeline of the Supreme Court justices arriving at the Court.