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Keeping the Republilc, 4th Edition, The Essentials
The 2008 election will go down in the history books for a number of reasons, including the first African American at the top of a national party ticket, the longest nomination fight in recent memory, and a viable female candidate for president for the first time ever, but one of its most striking hallmarks is the early and enthusiastic involvement of young voters. While the passion they bring is encouraging, the key to their lasting impact will be the extent to which they really understand the functioning of the American political system, leading to a deeper and more abiding engagement.
By using the themes of power and citizenship, Barbour and Wright encourage students to analyze “who gets what and how” and evaluate how well the political system is working. In order to “keep the republic,” students need to shoulder responsibilities as well as exercise their rights. In order to see where politics intersects their own roles as citizens, they need to absorb the ideas and theories that animate the study of political science and think critically about them. And in order to keep students reading, the prose needs to be clear, friendly, and relevant.
The key to this new fourth edition is thorough updating— including the 2008 elections—and the integration of subtle enhancements every class-tested, well-reviewed, and well developed book should offer. In addition to examining recent events and scholarship, more than half the photos are new, the figures and tables reflect current data, and new vignettes open a majority of chapters.
To learn more about Keeping the Republic, 4th Edition, THE ESSENTIALS, click here.
Clued in to Politics, 2nd Edition
How do you get students to move beyond merely describing an author’s point of view? How do you get them to dig deeper, to actually uncover evidence and evaluate conclusions? The answer is to model critical thinking and close reading. Barbour and Streb have created an effective and simple device that pushes students to actively engage with readings and tease out each writer’s argument. Through a series of probing questions, students are trained—systematically—to read through a selection and:
Consider the source,
Lay out the argument,
Uncover the evidence,
Evaluate the conclusion,
Sort out the political implications.
To learn more about Clued in to Politics, 2nd Edition, click here.
Bio(s)
Christine Barbour, Indiana University
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.
Gerald C. Wright, Indiana University
Gerald C. Wright has taught political science at Indiana University since 1981. He is an accomplished scholar of American politics—his books include Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion, and Policy in the American States with co-authors Robert S. Erikson and John P. McIver, and he has published over 40 articles on elections, public opinion, and state politics. He has long studied the relationship between citizens, their preferences and public policy. He is currently conducting research with a grant from the National Science Foundation on what influences the character of policy representation in the states and the U.S. Congress, and he is writing a book about representation in the American legislatures. He has been a consultant for Project Vote Smart in the last several elections. Professor Wright is a member of the Freshmen Learning Project at Indiana University, a university-wide effort to improve the first year undergraduate experience by focusing on how today’s college students learn and how teachers can adapt their pedagogical methods to best teach them.
Matthew J. Streb, Loyola Marymount University
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.
