Clued in to Politics is a collection of contemporary American government readings (more than half new to this edition) that uses proven pedagogy for modeling critical thinking. The editors write a contextual headnote—“why we chose this piece”—and then follow every reading with questions that employ the CLUES method: Consider the source, Lay out the argument, Uncover the evidence, Evaluate the conclusion, and Sort out the political implications. By consistently walking students through a process for close reading and analysis, students pick up the habit of critical thinking and internalize a process that moves them far beyond regurgitating information. The chapters line up with coverage in introductory American government texts.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• Fully updated with new readings, the fourth edition covers the latest developments, issues, and trends in American government and politics.

KEY FEATURES:

• Unique critical thinking approach: The book models analytic thinking and applies the CLUES method to help readers internalize a process for reading analytically.
• Currency: The book’s readings are up-to-date and relevant, with a student audience in mind with every selection.
• Breadth of Media Sources: One reading in every section is a classic, while the other readings are drawn from a variety of media, including books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, speeches, and letters.

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Preface to the Instructor
Preface to the Student
Chapter 1: Introduction to American Politics
1.1 A Remarkable, Historic Period of Change
     Ezra Klein
1.2 The Rebirth of American Civic Life
     Robert D. Putnam
1.3 Inaugural Address
     John F. Kennedy
Chapter 2: Political Culture and Ideology
2.1 Harmony and the Dream
     David Brooks
2.2 America’s New Culture War: Free Enterprise vs. Government Control
     Arthur C. Brooks
2.3 Left, right: The brain science of politics
     Kate Gluek
2.4 Today’s Politics: Coalition of Transcendent vs. Coalition of Restoration
     Ronald Brownstein
2.5 Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone?
     Thomas Edsall
2.6 Gettysburg Address
     Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 3: Immigration and American Demographics
3.1 Not Legal Not Leaving
     Jose Antonio Vargas
3.2 Why the Red States Will Benefit Most from Immigration
     Joel Kotkin
3.3 The End of Multiculturalism
     Lawrence E. Harrison
3.4 What America Will We Pick?
     Eugene Robinson
3.5 I Have a Dream
     Martin Luther King Jr.
Chapter 4: Federalism and the Constitution
4.1 “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” for Friday, May 15, 2009
     Keith Olbermann
4.2 An Iowa Fox in California’s Hen House
     Editorial, The Press Democrat
4.3 Our Imbecilic Constitution
     Sanford Levinson
4.4 Federalist No. 51
     James Madison
Chapter 5: Civil Liberties
5.1 Obama’s New Frame: Gun Rights Vs. The Right to Life
     Jill Lawrence
5.2 The courts, birth control and phony claims of ‘religious liberty’
     Barry W. Lynn
5.3 We are Shocked, shocked…
     David Simon
5.4 Dead Letter Office
     Dahlia Lithwick
5.5 Federalist No. 84
     Alexander Hamilton
Chapter 6: Civil Rights
6.1 Segregated prom tradition yields to unity
     Jamie Gumbrecht
6.2 A Father’s Journey
     Frank Bruni
6.3 Trent Franks’s abortion claim and the manly Republican Party
     Dana Milbank
6.4 A More Perfect Union
     Barack Obama
Chapter 7: Congress
7.1 Let’s Just Say It: The Republicans Are the Problem
     Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
7.2 Say Goodbye to Gridlock in Washington
     Ira Shapiro
7.3 Big State, Small State
     Adam Liptak
7.4 The Great Gerrymander of 2012
     Sam Wang
7.5 Declaration of Conscience
     Margaret Chase Smith
Chapter 8: The Presidency
8.1 The Real Agenda
     Editorial, New York Times
8.2 How to Measure for a President
     John Dickerson
8.3 The Presider
     Andrew Sullivan
8.4 The Powerless Presidency 
     Ryan Lizza
8.5 Excerpt from Speech to Congress
     Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 9: Bureaucracy
9.1 In Artist’s Freeway Prank, Form Followed Function
     Hugo Martin
9.2 Edward Snowden Is No Hero
     Jeffrey Toobin
9.3 Judge Blocks New York City’s Limits on Big Sugary Drinks 
     Michael M. Grynbaum
9.4 Special Message to the Congress Recommending the Establishment of a Department of National Defense
     Harry S. Truman
Chapter 10: The Courts
10.1 Obstruction of Judges
     Jeffrey Rosen
10.2 No More Mr. Nice Guy
     Jeffrey Toobin
10.3 Supreme Court Weighs Cases Redefining Legal Equality
     Adam Liptak
10.4 The Cost of Compromise
     Linda Greenhouse
10.5 Federalist No. 78
     Alexander Hamilton
Chapter 11: Public Opinion
11.1 Party On, Dudes!
     Matthew Robinson
11.2 The Rise of the Poll Quants (or, Why Sam Wang Might Eat a Bug)
     Tom Bartlett
11.3 Pro-Life and Pro-Choice
     Mark Mellman
11.4 The Other War Room
     Joshua Green
11.5 Will the Polls Destroy Representative Democracy?
     George Horace Gallup and Saul Forbes Rae
Chapter 12: Political Parties
12.1 GOP vs. Voting Rights Act
     William Yeomans
12.2 Conservatives, Don't Despair
     David Frum
12.3 The Senate's 'Manchurian candidates'
     Steve LaTourette
12.4 Introducing the Purple Party
     Kurt Andersen
12.5 Farewell Address
     George Washington
Chapter 13: Interest Groups
13.1 Shy No More, N.R.A.’s Top Gun Sticks to Cause
     Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jodi Kantor
13.2 For-Profit Colleges Mount Unprecedented Battle For Influence In Washington
     Chris Kirkham
13.3 Super PACs get new use -- as lobbying arms on Hill
     Dave Leventhal
13.4 Federalist No. 10
     James Madison
Chapter 14: Voting and Elections
14.1 A Vast Left-Wing Competency
     Sasha Issenberg
14.2 On Voting, Listen to John Lewis
     Michael Waldman
14.3 Obama vs. Campaign Finance Laws
     John Wonderlich
14.4 Concession Speech
     Al Gore
Chapter 15: The Media
15.1 Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
     Clay Shirky
15.2 The Unskewed Election
     Ben Smith and Ruby Cramer
15.3 Tearing down the conservative echo chamber
     Joe Scarborough
15.4 Obama, the Puppet Master
     Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen
15.5 5 (Weird) Ways Government is Experimenting with Social Media
     Ryan Holmes
15.6 Mr. Hearst Answers High School Girl’s Query
     William Randolph Hearst
Chapter 16: Domestic Policy
16.1 Zero Tolerance Lets a Student’s Future Hang on a Knife’s Edge
     Barry Siegel
16.2 Has President Obama Done Enough for Black Americans?
     George Condon Jr. and Jim O’Sullivan
16.3 President, Democrats must now focus on the real problem: Spending
     Mitch McConnell
16.4 Fireside Chat
     Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
17.1 Long Engagements
     George Packer
17.2 The Case for Missile Defense
     Steve Bonta
17.3 Fund—Don’t Cut—U.S. Soft Power
     David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon
17.4 Speech Before the National Association of Evangelicals
     Ronald Reagan
Credits

Christine Barbour teaches in the political science department and the Honors College at Indiana University, where she has become increasingly interested in how teachers of large classes can maximize what their students learn. At Indiana, Professor Barbour has been a Lilly Fellow, working on a project to increase student retention in large introductory courses, and a member of the Freshmen Learning Project, a university-wide effort to improve the first year undergraduate experience. She has served on the New York Times College Advisory Board, working with other educators on developing ways to integrate newspaper reading into the undergraduate curriculum. She has won several teaching awards at Indiana, but the two that mean the most to her were awarded by her students: the Indiana University Student Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Faculty (1995-6) and the Indiana University Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Brown Derby Award (1997). She is currently working on a book about local politics, development and the fishing industry in Apalachicola, Florida.

Matthew J. Streb is assistant professor in the political science department at Northern Illinois University. He is editor or co-editor of Law and Election Politics: The Rules of the Game, Polls and Politics: The Dilemmas of Democracy, and Clued in to Politics and author of The New Electoral Politics of Race. He specializes and teaches in the areas of parties, elections, polling and public opinion, Congress, civil rights movements, and research methods.