Keeping the Republic, 4th Brief edition

It happens too often—well-regarded authors write an excellent full-length text, only to have it sliced and diced into a brief edition whose narrative bears little resemblance to the original. Thankfully, you have a choice—KTR Brief is carefully condensed by Barbour and Wright, giving your students the continuity and consistency of the full version, just in a more concise package.

Serving as a true aid to teachers, each chapter’s discussion of “who gets what and how” is designed to build students’ analytical abilities. By introducing them to the seminal work in the field and showing them how to employ the themes of power and citizenship, this proven text builds confidence in students who want to take an active part in their communities and government.

In this fourth edition, students will find discussion of the Obama administration’s early successes and setbacks, of how Congress fared under Democratic majorities, of the 2010 midterm election results, and of the lasting and lingering affects of the Great Recession, health care reform passage, two ongoing wars, the BP oil spill, and a fast-changing mass media climate.

Barbour and Wright have carefully crafted each sidebar, box, and profile to develop students’ critical thinking skills:

• What’s at Stake?-What’s at Stake Revisited vignettes bookend each chapter asking students to think about what people are struggling to get from politics.
• Consider the Sourceunpacks a method for assessing different types of political information: look for bias, lay out the argument, uncover evidence, and sort out political implications.
• Profiles in Citizenship feature advice about the various ways students can enter public life and make a difference from figures like Sandra Day O’Connor, Bill Richardson, and Bill Maher.

For more information about Keeping the Republic, click here.

Lone Star Politics, 2nd edition

Lone Star PoLitics pays homage to the legendary political history of Texas while exploring how myth clashes with the reality of the state’s day-to-day governance. How has Texas developed and flourished, but also failed to respond fully to new challenges? Explaining who gets what and how within the state, this Nacogdoches author team provides an engaging narrative on the evolution of Texas politics, setting it in context with other states’ constitutions, policymaking, electoral practices, and school systems. 

Updated to cover recent events, the second edition includes new discussion and expanded coverage of:

• the results of the 2010 gubernatorial elections;
• the impact of the Great Recession on Texas; 
• the legislative process and the organization of the legislature;
• the “Texas two-step;”
• state education policy;
• the controversial reauthorization of the Texas Department of Transportation; and 
• the effect of recent court cases.

Highly regarded “Texas vs. ______” boxes (which compare Texas to other states) and “Texas Legends” boxes (which showcase figures and institutions that have shaped—and continue to influence—Texas politics) have been enhanced in every chapter. Concise and a great value, Lone Star Politics provides well-crafted content and numerous tables, figures, maps, and photos at an affordable cost.

For more information about Lone Star Politics, click here.

Keeping the Republic, 4th Brief edition 

New annotated section headings reinforce the book's main points. Twice the photos than in the previous edition.

• Chapter 1 features a new What's at Stake? on turnout and political engagement by young voters in the 2008 election. 
• The chapter on the founding includes a new What's at Stake? that looks at citizens' frustration with government and their expression of this  through the Tea Party Movement. 
• The federalism chapter features extended discussion of unfunded mandates, including the controversial 2005 REAL ID Act.
• The new What's at Stake? in the civil liberties chapter examine a state attorney general's effort to prosecute a professor for what he saw as fradulent scientific research. New and updated coverage of health care reform, reproductive rights, and the Obama administration is woven throughout the chapter.
• The civil rights chapter features expanded discussion of African American voter turnout and the election of Obama, along  with updates addressing gender discrimination and sexual orientation.
• In the chapter on Congress, the new What's at Stake? addresses the use of the filibuster in the Senate to stymie Obama's presidential ambitions and also examines Congress's role as a watchdog, looking in particular at the SEC and the financial crisis. There is expanded discussion on increasing political polarization and congressional oversight and regulation concerning the oil industry.
• The presidency chapter features the Obama administration throughout, streamlines information on executive agreements, and looks at Obama's picks for the judiciary. A revised examination of public approval looks at how changes in the economy precipitated Obama's approval rating drop.
• A thoroughly revised bureaucracy chapter addresses the politicization of the bureaucracy and differing views on regulation.
• The courts chapter focuses on the contentious confirmation process and the role of partisanship in stalling monimations and also discusses new Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
• The public opinion chapter has been reorganized, with examination of the sources of division in public opinion and the connection of this division to partisanship and ideology.
• National health care reform leads off the parties and interest groups chapter with updates regarding the Tea Party movement and the Citizens United case.
• The significance of the Citizens United ruling is examined in the new What's at Stake? in the voting and elections chapter. Reorganized discussions on voting and reform and on voter turnout attitudes are also included.
• The growing role of the internet as a news source is explored in the media chapter's new What's at Stake?
• The policy chapter includes new discussion of national health care reform, the Dodd-Frank bank reform bill, and the federal stimulus bill, along with an updated What's at Stake? that examines the BP oil spill within the context of the debate over offshore drilling.

Lone Star Politics, 2nd edition

Updated to cover recent events, students will find new discussion on the impact of the Great Recession on the state, as well as the controversial reauthorization of the Texas Department of Transportation, and an examination of the impact of recent court cases.

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For Keeping the Republic's table of contents, click here.

For Lone Star Politic's table of contents, click here.

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 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.

Ken Collier is associate professor at Stephen F. Austin State University with a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He has is the author of Between the Branches: The White House Office of Legislative Affairs and is currently conducting research on presidential speechwriting and gubernatorial elections. He has published articles in such journals as White House Studies, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Public Choice, and Social Science Quarterly.

Steven Galatas is associate professor at Stephen F. Austin State University with a PhD from University of Missouri. He has published articles in Journal of Politics, Public Choice, , Party Politics, PS: Politics and Political Science, and Politics and Policy. His research and teaching concerns comparative elections, voting behavior, and campaign finance.

Julie Harrelson-Stephens is associate professor at Stephen F. Austin State University with her PhD from the University of North Texas. She is the coeditor of Exploring International Human Rights: Essential Readings (with Rhonda L. Callaway).