Customer Reviews

The Political Junkie Handbook: The Political Junkie Handbook: A Definitive Book on Politics (The Definitive Reference Book on Politics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this book a few weeks ago with the expectation of brushing up on the numerous political issues that are topping the news in this year's election season, and to simply become more knowledgeable about basic facts. As it turns out, the book spends more time on my desk at work than at home where I reference it frequently for insight on issues that our marketing research firm covers for various newspapers. Overall, a great resource for anyone interested in shoring up their knowledge base, and knowing what they're talking about. Remember, a smarter America is a better America!

I think it's great that someone is compiling all this data into a single source of information. As a political junky, I eat this sort of information up quickly, and am always hungry for more.

I completely agree with the reason for publishing this sort of work: most Americans are woefully out of touch with how and why thier government works. Soundbites from election-year ads, talk-radio, and Fox News are a poor substitute for facts, analysis, and true discourse.

I think if Mr. Crane updates this book in the future, he should get better help to check the numbers, facts, and quotes presented. My impression (I'm about half-way through) is that these figures were slapped together without much editing and checking of what's printed.

Don't get me wrong -- there's lots of great info here, but inaccurate facts are worse than no figures at all.

I saw several tables where columns were obviously missing (heading, but no data), numbers that were obvious mistakes, and even quotations repeated verbatim on the same page. Also, there were several presentations of data that (with a little math or spreadsheet technology) could have revealed much more valuable information. I believe most data was presented as-is from the source -- some analysis may have helped.

Finally, the two-color graphics could have been much more interesting with more colors. I realize this would add to the cost of the book, but feel it would be worth it. Many graphs and maps were extremely hard to interpret with only shades of gray. It didn't help that some maps/graphs appeared to have been scanned in and blown up until they were blurry just to fill the page.

Hopefully, Mr. Crane's next edition will incorporate some of these suggestions. The potential is there -- it just needs a bit of work to really shine.

Great book, I can't put it down. I listen to the radio talk shows and regularly watch Fox News so this book helps me keep an eye on the shows' hosts. Any facts mentioned on these shows can be instantly checked in The Political Junkie Handbook for accuracy. I thought I knew a great deal about politics until I started reading this book. I feel as though I am in school again.
The lists in the back of the book are also valuable and highly entertaining. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in politics.

A great compilation of statistics from places like the Census Bureau and the Energy Information Agency (did you even know there was one?). TPJH is an essential reference for settling political debates with facts, rather than rhetoric. It is apparent, however, that Crane is an economist from the Midwest, so expect the occasional commentary to lean slightly toward the Austrian school.

From the second this book arrived in the mail, my husband could hardly set it down! He is very interested in politics and also in the military so he dove right in and found the information very interesting.

The author is brilliant, and the cover quotes are phenomenal. Instead of my favorite quote for Thomas Jefferson ("A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry") the author uses one new to me, but I love it, "If all Americans know all the facts, they will never make a mistake." Join that with Abe Lincoln's "cannot fool all of the people all of the time" and you have the Republic at its finest.

Reminding me of Dick "Vice" Cheney, the cover features also John Huxley's quote, "Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct."

I list the table of contents for this marvelous (and very well-priced) huge (644 8.5 x 11 inch pages) volume. The publisher should have done this.

There are some troubling variations in the melange of what is covered for any given issue--some have Supreme Court ruling (e.g. abortionj others have pages of statistics. Standardization would have helped. Here are the topics covered, and I have not seen a finer single point of reference anywhere:

Aboriton
Affirmative Action
AIDS
Business
Communism
Courts
Supreme Court
Crime and Punishment
Death Penalty
Defense and the Military
Demographics
Disabilities
Drug and Alcohol Use
Economy
Educaiton
Elections
Energy
Environment
Family
Farm Policy
Federal Government
Feminism
Foreign Policy
Gay Rights
Global Warming
Gun Control
Health Care
The Homeless
Immigration
Labor
Media
Muslims
Political Correctness
Poverty
Race Relations
Regulation
Reparations
Social Security
Taxes
Terrorism and Home Security
Tort Reform
Trade
Welfare
Miscellaneous (from Girls of Clinton--guess which Clinton--to ....

Easily one of the most exciting parts of the above are the quotes with footnotes. This is a *killer* political research book.

Following the majority of the book are lists that are alone worth the price of the book and I am using them:

Senate Scorecard (Electoral Reform does not appear in this book)
Congress
100 Differences
Why Conservatives Hated the Clinton Administration
Why Liberals Hated the Reagan Administration
Celebrities (including quotes and contributions where available)
Economists
Books
Gore Misstatements (if McCain is a total idiot, Lieberman may be the first person in history to cost BOTH parties a presidential win)
Russell Kirk's Principles
Political Leaders of the Past
Political Talk Shows (with telephone numbers)
Lobbying and the Media
Polling Companies
Political Magazines
Political Groups
People
Federal Bureaucracy
Glossary

The Index is cursory, another reason I left it at four despite the deep respect I have for this endeavor.

Here is the book I would like to commission from him, covering at least five parties (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, Reforms, and of course Independents):

THREATS
Poverty
Infectious Disease
Environmental Degradation
Inter-State Conflict (including votes on defense budget)
Civil War
Genocide (including votes against intervention in Rwanda)
Other Atrocities (including votes against victim rights)
Proliferation (including votes for US nuclear arms industry)
Terrorism
Transnational Crime (should include white collar corporate crime)

POLICIES
Agriculture
Diplomacy (including votes against beefing it up)
Economy
Education
Energy
Family
Health
Immigration
Justice
Security (including water and food security, job security, etc)
Society (including subversion of our Christian culture)
Water

CHALLENGERS (including Senate and White House ignorance and neglect):
Brazil
China
India
Indonesia
Iran
Russia
Venezuela
Wild Cards (e.g. Congo, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey)

I am an admirer of Paul Ray and a few others, I link to some below, but I am finding in this author real promise for enlightening all citizens, online, and exposing the platitudes being offered by Obama and McCain for what they are: empty promises with no foundation in a balanced budget or a serious (credible) story on where the revenue will come from. I for one believe that Gordon Norquist should demand a pledge to eliminate all individual income taxes and institute the Tobin Tax on all Federal Reserve transactions.

Put online, with an EarthGame(TM Medard Gabel), and all budgets online in advance of votes and without permitting secret earmarks, and we get our Republic back. Superb effort, it can be improved upon, and this needs to be done NOW.

See also:
The Nine Nations of North America
The Clustering of America
The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The Bush Tragedy
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

I have never read a book quite like this. Talk about informational overload: this book gives it in overtime. It was so fascinating that I couldn't put it down. I bought some to use as birthday gifts for my fellow political junkie.

the author clearly grabbed everything he could find from the Internet and jammed it into a book. typos abound, there's no rhyme or reason or overarching goal, and much of what's included is simplistic drivel or out-of-date data. a real disappointment.

Book arrived in record time and in excellent condition. Item was packed well and exactly as described.