Customer Reviews

Understanding American Government, Alternate Edition

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

 

 

I took a course in which the teacher used this manuel and I found it really helpful; pretty much everything is in there: basic principles of the political system with a lot of history (which is really interesting because that helps you to understand and remember what you learned: put things in context) The book is divided in about 15 chapters, each of them on a particular aspect: american society, federalism, justice system, elections, etc.

I think the most important aspect of this book is all the history in each chapters.

This book is fine for beginners and for intermediate as well.

The authors have done a rather textbook version of the same information. The previous editions of this book are much more readable and enjoyable.

This book, being a recently revised edition, presents U.S. Governmental History from a fresh current and unbiased perspective. I recommend every adult citizen to read this book or something like it every 10 years. Let's not forget how and why we do things the way we do.

I can say that, without a doubt, this is the worst textbook ever written for non-social science majors. The terms you need to know encompass a page at the most, the examples (or as I call them, page-adders) take up 2-3 pages and it's all extraneous information that does little to help you understand the term. This book would be great to bring someone up to date on some political changes, but other than that... I'd throw it in the burn pile. It's about as useful as a reading a magazine... actually I'd take the magazine because at least they have decent editors.

Long, horrific story short, if you are a teacher: DON'T USE THIS BOOK! Save your students the pain of pages of extraneous information and get them a damn book that cuts to the chase! If you're a student with a teacher who uses this book, get a different teacher, unless you really enjoy tons of extraneous information.

This book is not worth the space it take up on this earth. It is awful.

I purchased this book for my daughter's class. I am not familiar with the content, but it saved me money compared with buying at the school bookstore.

Good book for the class. A bit overpriced I think, but that is normal for textbooks. Lots of useful info and a good general coverage of the fundamentals of American Government.

I bought this at Amazon.com from an Awesome Deal I found on DailyTool.com. I don't like this book too much because it dropped its value too much. I bought this at $50 and now it goes to two cents.