Customer Reviews

The Everything American Government Book: From the Constitution to Present-Day Elections, All You Need to Understand Our Democratic System (Everything (History & Travel))

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A must for anyone taking the Foreign Service Written Exam or an AP Government course in high school!

Nick Ragone demystifies the inner workings of American government, and provides valuable insight to all those not from "inside the Beltway." He leaves nothing out and writes with clarity, depth and a good sense of humor.

Highly recommended!

A must read for every student...... a life time reference book.

The author, Nick Ragone has un-complicated the workings of our system of government and made it a fun book to read. Looking foward to reading the authors next book. Anthony Graziano

An excellent primer by a lawyer, political wiz and PR practioner extraordinaire. I highly recommend it for those that didn't take government or civics in high school or college.

This is the sort of book I keep handy to answer any question that may come up about the US Govt. Easy to find answers, easy to read, yet thorough.

The layout is less intuitive than, say, an idiots guide, but doesn't talk down to you and leave out details while doing it.

The genius about this book is the fact that it remains intuitive via the writing style. This book was meant, I believe, to be read from front to back as an easily digestible read, but can be taken in part.

Good stuff.

This book is an excellent guide to the American Government system. It covers historical events surrounding the writing of the Constitution and reveals personal information on the founding fathers. This book is an interesting read and a great companion book to AP Government Classes for High Schoolers or anyone who would like to have more information on the political roots and processes in America.

Whether starting to explore the American government's workings or brushing up, this is a great guide. Nick Ragone's straight-forward approach breaks it down, creating a refreshing, interesting read.

Relatively easy to understand explaination of the basics; however the author's political bias is definitely there and comes out repeatedly in his highlighted examples, which overshadows what he should be trying to illustrate.

We used this book as a text for our homeschool American Government course. It had all of the necessary information in an easily accessible format. It was easy to cover all of the material in a semester course.

This is not to judge or grade this book on American Government.

But it is true that I looked for something which I consider an essential element of federal government, and I did not find it her, and not in other presentations of American government either.

Namely, there is no systematic presentation of the division of legislative (and administrative) powers between the federal and the state level, and there is no information either on fiscal federalism, the division, between the two levels, of collecting and of spending public money, and of their respective degree of autonomy in doing so.

It is easier to find information on some of these aspects in Wikipedia than here, which I found disappointing.

There you are,

Best, C.Deubner