American Government (Cliffs Quick Review)

Book Description

CliffsQuickReview course guides cover the essentials of your toughest classes. Get a firm grip on core concepts and key material, and test your newfound knowledge with review questions.

Whether you are a student under pressure, an interested citizen trying to brush up, or a recent arrival trying to understand this new land in which you find yourself, CliffsQuickReview American Government can help. This guide introduces each topic, defines key terms, and carefully walks you through each sample problem step-by-step. In no time, you'll be ready to tackle the key concepts in this book such as

The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution and Bill of Rights
Congress, the President, and the Judiciary
Political parties
Voting and elections
Civil Liberties
Economic and foreign policy

CliffsQuickReview American Government provides an overview of the history, institutions, practices, and policies of the American government with plain words and useful formats, so that you can use your time efficiently. Use this reference in any way that fits your personal style for study and review — you decide what works best with your needs. Here are just a few ways you can search for topics:

Use the free Pocket Guide full of essential information
Get a glimpse of what you'll gain from a chapter by reading through the Chapter Check-In at the beginning of each chapter
Use the Chapter Checkout at the end of each chapter to gauge your grasp of the important information you need to know
Test your knowledge more completely in the CQR Review and look for additional sources of information in the CQR Resource Center
Use the glossary to find key terms fast.

With titles available for all the most popular high school and college courses, CliffsQuickReview guides are a comprehensive resource that can help you get the best possible grades.

Customer Reviews:

All you need for the CLEP:.......2007-08-22

If you're looking for a study guide for the American Government CLEP test, then this book is all you'll need. I read it from cover to cover during the 3-days before my test and passed with flying colors. It covers EVERYTHING you need to know and doesn't leave anything out. I highly recommend it!

EASY CLEP!.......2007-02-03

This is the only book that you'll need to pass the American Government CLEP! I agree that you should do what it says in the other reviews and they're all good reviews but I would like to add a new slant. After you buy this book go and buy some page flags and mark every single page in the book that has words in BOLD format. Make your very best effort to read this book from cover to cover at least 2 weeks before you take the American Government CLEP. Then use the next 2 weeks before the test date to review all of the items in the book that are in BOLD which are easy to locate because of the page flags. Of course do what it says in the other reviews such as try know and have a good understanding of every Ammendment and Supreme Court Case in the book. After you pass the American Government CLEP give this book with the page flags still in it to somebody else because you won't need it anymore!

It works!.......2006-03-22

I studied the Cliff Notes American Government book and Microsoft Encarta for 2 weeks and got a 68 on the CLEP. This book has got it all covered for you.

That's not to say that all you need to do is read through this book once. American Government is a harder-than-average CLEP (most people score 5-15 points below their usual score with the same amount/intensity of study). The main difficulty lies primarily in the wording of the questions and answers, not necessarily the difficulty of the subject matter itself. They won't just ask a straightforward question with a straightforward answer. You have to be able to pull from your knowledge of several different facts in order to answer one question. Don't go in to the test without all your Amendments and Court Cases memorized.

However, this book is tailored to the point, focusing on all the issues you need to know. It can guide your study and help it to be maximally profitable.

Almost perfect.......2006-03-14

I used this book as my ONLY study guide for the CLEP test of the same title.

I studied for only three weeks, I passed with an A.

My score was 61 (50 is passing on the CLEP).

This was the lowest score that I have ever gotten on a CLEP test. If this book had more of a question and answer section, I'm sure my score would have been higher.

But all in all, the book was "almost perfect".

Great for CLEP.......2005-10-13

I used this book to study for the American Government CLEP. I easily passed. I support what the other reviewers have said exactly- this book covers almost everything on the exam but a few questions and it does not contain much extra information that you don't need to know. Easy to read. Easy to understand.

Civics Today; Citizenship, Economics, and You, Student Edition

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Boring CD, although the book is well written

Civics Today; Citizenship, Economics, and You, Student Edition
McGraw-Hill
Manufacturer: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0078609704

Book Description

Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics, and You meets the content standards for civics and government as outlined by the National Standards for Civics and Government.

Many young citizens are completing their education with little or no sense of civic responsibility. Civics Today: Citizenship, Economics, and You teaches the knowledge and skills needed to be an effective, active citizen. It also encourages an appreciation for the American political system. It will foster a willingness to take part in American democracy.

Two economics units provide an understanding of the interrelationship between democracy and the free enterprise system.

Customer Reviews:

Boring CD, although the book is well written.......2007-03-09

I bought the book for my son. It is OK. But the CD is bad. The lady ready read the book monotoniously. She is not speaking, just reading like a machine. Very dispointing.

Reimagining Civic Education: How Diverse Societies Form Democratic Citizens

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Reimagining Civic Education: How Diverse Societies Form Democratic Citizens

Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Civic Education and Culture

ASIN: 0742547566

Book Description

This volume surveys the new global landscape for democratic civic education. Rooted in qualitative researc, the contributors explore the many ways that notions of democracy and citizenship have been implemented in recent education policy, curriculum, and classroom practice around the world. From Indonesia to the Spokane Reservation and El Salvador to Estonia, these chapters reveal a striking diversity of approaches to political socialization in varying cultural and institutional contexts. By bringing to bear the methodological, conceptual and theoretical perspectives of qualitative research, this book adds important new voices to one of educationOs most critical debates how to form democratic citizens in a changing world.

Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (Pivotal Moments in American History)

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A terrific and thorough review of Brown et al.
Desegregation and Brown v. Board - worth the read
America's Second Revolution
More Is Needed
A Well Researched Book

Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (Pivotal Moments in American History)
James T. Patterson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195156323

Amazon.com

In one of the most explosive legal decisions of the century, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in America's public schools was unconstitutional. The chief attorney for the African American families who initiated the legal challenge was Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. In this brief, detailed book, historian James Patterson reconstructs the complex history of the watershed 1954 case, from its legal precursors to its troubling legacy. "To be sure, Brown called for changes that the Court itself could not enforce," he writes. "In time, however, some of those changes came to pass, even in schools, those most highly sensitive of institutions."

Patterson outlines the stories of several influential pre-Brown cases and details the thinking and exploits of the legal minds involved with Brown, including Marshall and Chief Justice Earl Warren. He also follows the various responses to the decision by those most affected by it, including bigoted Arkansas governor Orval Faubus as well as President Dwight Eisenhower. More than a simple chronology, Brown v. Board of Education raises many questions about America's unfinished business of truly democratizing its educational system once and for all. Both instructive and disturbing, this book calls for us to question whether we will turn back the clock or demand movement forward. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

2004 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to end segregation in public schools. Many people were elated when Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in May 1954, the ruling that struck down state-sponsored racial segregation in America's public schools. Thurgood Marshall, chief attorney for the black families that launched the litigation, exclaimed later, "I was so happy, I was numb." The novelist Ralph Ellison wrote, "another battle of the Civil War has been won. The rest is up to us and I'm very glad. What a wonderful world of possibilities are unfolded for the children!" Here, in a concise, moving narrative, Bancroft Prize-winning historian James T. Patterson takes readers through the dramatic case and its fifty-year aftermath. A wide range of characters animates the story, from the little-known African Americans who dared to challenge Jim Crow with lawsuits (at great personal cost); to Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Justice himself; to Earl Warren, who shepherded a fractured Court to a unanimous decision. Others include segregationist politicians like Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas; Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon; and controversial Supreme Court justices such as William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas. Most Americans still see Brown as a triumph--but was it? Patterson shrewdly explores the provocative questions that still swirl around the case. Could the Court--or President Eisenhower--have done more to ensure compliance with Brown? Did the decision touch off the modern civil rights movement? How useful are court-ordered busing and affirmative action against racial segregation? To what extent has racial mixing affected the academic achievement of black children? Where indeed do we go from here to realize the expectations of Marshall, Ellison, and others in 1954?

Customer Reviews:

A terrific and thorough review of Brown et al........2006-10-19

James T. Patterson's Brown v. Board of Education is an exceedingly well researched historical work on the pivotal cases faced on all judicial levels in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s regarding segregation in our nation's schools. Professor Patterson masterfully writes on not just the legal implications of the landmark decision(s) in Brown but also in regard to their social impact. He puts into a greater racial and societal context not only the meaning of Brown but also the strategies of Thurgood Marshall and his associates in deciding to bring before the Court when many other challenges to Jim Crow could have been argued with much legal and moral merit.

Patterson tirelessly, but interestingly, cites case after case and puts each before the reader in the context of a broader societal consequence. He dispassionately argues the merit and challenges of desegregation as society was changing at a precipitous rate with "white flight" from our urban centers to affluence and the ability to "avoid" integration with the availability of private schools obviously not covered by Brown or the 14th Amendment. A theme seemingly in most, if not all, of Patterson's writings on the American 20th Century is the effect of expectations of the populous. Indeed his wonderful contribution to the Oxford Series of United States History is entitled "Grand Expectations". It is interesting how he weaves that theme into this much more specific narrative. "This is another way of reiterating an essential truth about Brown: so many larger postwar forces- rising expectations and restlessness among blacks; slowly changing white attitudes about racial segregation; the Cold War, which left Jim Crow America vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy when it claimed to lead the Free World - were impelling the nation townard liberalization of its racial practices.

This is a great book and is part of the Oxford Series of Pivotal Moments in American History. To state the utter obvious, the reader should be aware that this "moment" is still very much ongoing and, as such, this book is much broader, out of intellectual necessity, than one, or really two, Supreme Court decisions.

Desegregation and Brown v. Board - worth the read.......2003-01-06

This is really a must read book for anyone interested in the issues surround desegregation and the efforts by Thurgood Marshall and others to end such practices in America's schools. It also is a very vivid reminder that courts and lawsuits can only go so far, and in the end it is people and their institutions that must be changed as well. Did Brown achieve all that it was hoped that it would - the author argues that it didn't, but that it did lay the foundation for tremendous change in racial relations during the last century. The author also helps to place the decision of Brown in context with other legal and political events that help the reader understand what was the source of resistence in various parts of the US to school desegregation and subsequent busing endeavors. Well worth reading and keeping on your shelves.

America's Second Revolution.......2002-11-11

Patterson succeeds in writing a very different book than Kruger's unequaled "Simple Justice." While Simple Justice told the story of how Brown v. Board of Education came to be, Paterson asks whether Brown should have been.

After giving a brief history of Brown (covering, in summary fashion, much of the ground covered by Kruger), Patterson examines the aftermath of Brown. The question Patterson addresses throughout the book is whether Brown marked a step forward in civil rights.

Patterson successfully debunks the argument that Brown was a step backwards. As he says, anyone who thinks that the country was better off before Brown had better buy a two way ticket if he wants to go back in time, because he will want to turn right around and come back. Before Brown, most black children were educated in tarpaper shacks, by grossly underpaid teachers, with no supplies, and even less respect.

Did Brown solve all problems? Of course not. As Patterson notes, what Brown does do is prove that there are limits to the power of the courts to accomplish social change. However, the Supreme Court did set an unequivocal moral tone, which set the stage for the civil rights movement, which (building on the constitutional foundation built by Brown) changed the world we all live in.

Has racism ended? No. But no one should expect any Supreme Court decision (or even a series of decisions spanning less than 25 years) to undo the racial history of this country which had taken 400 years to build. The real shame is that beginning in the late 70's, the courts, Congress, and the President have all worked to reverse the moral tone set in Brown. Unfortunately, they have succeeded all too well. But one can not fairly blame that on the Supreme Court's decision in Brown.

A thought provoking book which should be read by anyone who is interested in the history of race relations in the second half of the 20th Century.

More Is Needed.......2001-09-25

Much more needs to be written about the Brown v. Board of Education era. Patterson indeed does a good service of describing the "trouble legacy" of Brown. For while school integregation and the end to seperate but equal laws were a major revolution of sorts in this country, Brown left unresolved significant questions and problems concerning the education of African descended students and other minorities. For example, while Brown focused on legal and structural changes in public education, which led to the desegregation of schools, it did not address issues of integrating school curriculum and preparing teachers and school officials for a multicultural transformation of schooling. It simply assumed that the solution to racism in this society was to provide a way for Blacks to assimilate in the larger White society instead of empowering themselves to respect and build their own culture and institutions. While Patterson deals with the legal aspects Brown, he too avoids or overlooks the pedagogical and cultural issues that went unaddressed in Brown. Thus, Patterson's work doesn't add significantly anything new to the history of Brown that is not dealt with in J. Harvie Wilkson's From Brown to Bakke or Kluger's Simple Justice.

A Well Researched Book.......2001-09-04

Having grown up during the 1950's I wanted to familiarize myself in regard to civil rights, in particular as it applied to the historic 1954 Supreme Court ruling "Brown vs. the Board of Education." I found that President Eisenhower was not in favor of getting involved in civil rights for African Americans. He is quoted as saying that appointing Earl Warren as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court was the "biggest damn fool mistake I ever made." Roy Wilkins of the NAACP is quoted as saying if Eisenhower fought World War II as he did for civil rights, "We'd all be speaking German today." I was disappointed in Eisenhower's approach to civil rights for African Americans. Ten years after the 1954 Brown ruling, things hadn't changed regarding civil rights. The heroes in the book are those workers who fought in the trenches for civil rights, particularly during the 1960's. Most of them are not remembered, but their contributions remain, nonetheless. President Johnson's greatest legacy remains getting the government behind racial justice. The 1954 Brown ruling hasn't had the effect it may have desired regarding schools, but by the 20th anniversary of Brown, America had been brought kicking and screaming forward for civil rights for African Americans. The book lists a number of cases and studies with their results and I have concluded we don't really know whether integration has improved test scores in schools. Having been a teacher myself for 32 years I do know that children are not bigoted as were some children and adults I knew as a kid. Kids often reflect their parents behavior. This is a book that is definitely worthy of your time. I did find one error in the book. The author said Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg were executed in July of 1953 when actually it was on June 19, 1953.

The Troublemaker's Teaparty: A Manual for Effective Citizen Action

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It was good to me...

The Troublemaker's Teaparty: A Manual for Effective Citizen Action
Charles Dobson
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0865714894

Book Description

Thousands of small groups with few resources spend large amounts of time trying to influence decision-makers. For the most part, these groups are made up of ordinary citizens driven by a desire to make a difference beyond their own lives. Governments and corporations call these people "troublemakers." Those who study complex problems ranging from health care to global warming say we need far more troublemakers, far more active citizens.

Unlike similar books that are aimed at nonâ€“profits with paid staff, The Troublemaker's Teaparty is specifically designed to help small, volunteer citizen groups. An invaluable resource, it answers the basic questions of citizen action: How to get others involved? How to respect different views, but work cooperatively? How to make progress when decision-makers refuse to listen? How to find the time and resources?

The Troublemaker's Teaparty starts where most people start-on small actions focused on local improvement-then shifts to larger actions that transcend place. It includes:
How to create healthy group relationships.
How to build local community.
-How to avoid the pitfalls that drive people back into private life.
How to put the screws on government.
How to use the media to get results.
How to think strategically.

It also includes:
Project design, planning and evaluation.
Negotiating, campaign, and confrontational tactics.
A summary of what works in social movements.
New possibilities for direct action and web action.

Clear, concise, accessible, and down-to-earth, this will become the definitive citizen guide.

Charles Dobson has authored one of the best on-line organizing manuals available. He teaches creative problem solving at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and lives in Vancouver, BC.

Customer Reviews:

It was good to me..........2003-11-03

I am somewhat new to activism. This book helped me think through a lot of the muddle in my head about how to structure my efforts. It reads well and is quite entertaining. I was inspired to action.

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American Civics Freedom/Pupils Editions
William Harrison Hartley , and William Shafer Vincent
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0030540194

Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation

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An Opportunity Lost
Essential read for anyone interested in the history of successful American public policy

Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation
Suzanne Mettler
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195180976

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"A hell of a gift, an opportunity." "Magnanimous." "One of the greatest advantages I ever experienced." These are the voices of World War II veterans, lavishing praise on their beloved G.I. Bill. Transcending boundaries of class and race, the Bill enabled a sizable portion of the hallowed "greatest generation" to gain vocational training or to attend college or graduate school at government expense. Its beneficiaries had grown up during the Depression, living in tenements and cold-water flats, on farms and in small towns across the nation, most of them expecting that they would one day work in the same kinds of jobs as their fathers. Then the G.I. Bill came along, and changed everything. They experienced its provisions as inclusive, fair, and tremendously effective in providing the deeply held American value of social opportunity, the chance to improve one's circumstances. They become chefs and custom builders, teachers and electricians, engineers and college professors. But the G.I. Bill fueled not only the development of the middle class: it also revitalized American democracy. Americans who came of age during World War II joined fraternal groups and neighborhood and community organizations and took part in politics at rates that made the postwar era the twentieth century's civic "golden age." Drawing on extensive interviews and surveys with hundreds of members of the "greatest generation," Suzanne Mettler finds that by treating veterans as first-class citizens and in granting advanced education, the Bill inspired them to become the active participants thanks to whom memberships in civic organizations soared and levels of political activity peaked. Mettler probes how this landmark law produced such a civic renaissance. Most fundamentally, she discovers, it communicated to veterans that government was for and about people like them, and they responded in turn. In our current age of rising inequality and declining civic engagement, Soldiers to Citizens offers critical lessons about how public programs can make a difference.

Customer Reviews:

An Opportunity Lost.......2007-02-27

The GI Bill is the subject of a great book. The human interest stories of people affected by this landmark legislation should inspire us all. Unfortunately, this is not that book. It reads like a doctoral dissertation (which it may well be), with all the dryness and academic disinterest that implies. We get statistics and conclusions, with random personal impacts thrown in as filler. Never once do we get engaged in the subject. I looked forward to this book, but I read to the end out of a sense of duty, not because I really wanted to. The opportunity for a great book about the GI Bill was there. Ms. Mettler wasted it. The stars are for the stats, not the story.

Essential read for anyone interested in the history of successful American public policy.......2006-10-22

This book is such an articulately composed analysis of one of the United States' most successful public policies. In "Soldiers to Citizens," Suzanne Mettler outlines how the educational provisions of the G.I. Bill created what she refers to as "the greatest generation." The G.I. Bill not only fulfilled its intention of rewarding veterans for their selfless acts of patriotism, but it provided the opportunity for upward mobility, it increased civic engagement and strengthened political involvement.

With the constant media bombardment of negative political images, it's easy to gain a sense of cynicism toward our government. "Soldiers To Citizens" provides an optimistic view of how our government can positively affect our citizens through the implementation of strong public programs. Through personal interviews and extensive research, Mettler provides an intriguing analysis. I am fortunate enough to be a student of Mettler's. Simply put - she's brilliant.

I recommend this book to US politics and policy students, public servants, veterans, those in academia or anyone who has a genuine interest in American public policy.

Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education

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Towards a Politics of Friendship

Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education
Danielle S. Allen
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226014673

Book Description

"Don't talk to strangers" is the advice long given to children by parents of all classes and races. Today it has blossomed into a fundamental precept of civic education, reflecting interracial distrust, personal and political alienation, and a profound suspicion of others. In this powerful and eloquent essay, Danielle Allen, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, takes this maxim back to Little Rock, rooting out the seeds of distrust to replace them with "a citizenship of political friendship."

Returning to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow "citizen" Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us.

Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

“Allen understands that democracy originates in the subjective dimension of everyday life, and she focuses on what she calls our ‘habit of citizenship’—the ways we often unconsciously regard and interact with fellow citizens. . . . [Her] focus on race is entirely appropriate.”—Nick Bromell, Boston Review

Customer Reviews:

Towards a Politics of Friendship.......2005-01-18

Danielle Allen seems to be everywhere these days. From writing in academic journals such as POLITICAL THEORY to composing magazine pieces for THE NATION and THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR to various media appearances to reading personal works of poetry, Allen has rapidly become one of the leading young scholars in North America. Though young in age, her wisdom transcends any youthful categorizations. I resist labeling Allen a public intellectual as that phrase carries with it the aura of elite narcissism. Against the narcissistic tendency unfortunately prevalent among prominent academics, Allen represents what I call a "people's intellectual." A people's intellectual is an individual determined to take political theory, thought, and engaging ideas to the streets. This commitment to exposing theorists in academia as well as citizens in general to original thought-work is why I and many others are excited about Allen's current endeavors. Toni Morrison, Bonnie Honig, and Earl Shorris correctly point out that Allen is a worldly Rawls who meditates on our most pressing domestic and global questions by composing works that are part how-to-manuals, part political theory, and wholeheartedly possessing the goal of achieving Copernican insight by shifting our gaze regarding how we conceive of issues such as citizenship, race, trust, sacrifice, recognition, cosmopolitanism, and the future of democracy in these dark times.

Allen's first book dealt with the politics of punishing in democratic Athens. In TALKING TO STRANGERS, Allen bridges her expertise in ancient political thought with modern and contemporary political theory in order to address the role and anxieties of citizenship in the wake of the 1954 US Brown v. Board of Education decision. Specters of the late Ralph Waldo Ellison hover around the text as does the thought of thinkers such as Aristotle, Alexis de Tocqueville, Jürgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt, and James Baldwin. Interestingly, like Ellison in INVISIBLE MAN, Allen begins her work with a "Prologue." Unlike Ellison's unnamed narrator who reflects from the underground on the question of one's invisibility in society while physically being hyper-visible, Allen writes from above the ground and goes into the messy recent past of America to think about why people who see one another day to day simultaneously distrust one another and refuse to talk to one another in the mode of friends.

Drawing upon the prominent 1957 case of Elizabeth Eckford and school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, the author argues the US was reconstituted at that moment. That moment of reconstitution serves as the foundation upon which the ensuing discussions about distrust, trust, and political friendship occur. For Allen, the dilemmas of race and citizenship should be viewed as issues of distrust and trust. By calling for a "politics of friendship," the author thinks those in the American polity and elsewhere can overcome perennial states of distrust. By building up states of trust, the fabric underneath which democracy rests will be strengthened. We must talk to strangers if we desire truly to work through our most pressing problems. Rejecting the call for talking to strangers as mere utopianism is simply not good enough. Talking to strangers is hard work, and it ironically goes against the advice of "Don't talk to strangers!" given to children by their parents and other adult figures. But the hard work of talking to strangers holds the promise of societal transformation.

So what does this book provide the reader with? I believe Allen's book offers seven major contributions to political theory, critical race theory, and democratic politics: (1) a theory of political friendship; (2) a novel concept of sacrifice; (3) rethinking of the meaning of constitutionalism; (4) original analysis of the benefits and limitations of Habermas's theory of communicative action in terms of trust; (5) brilliant critique of Thomas Hobbes; (6) critique of the police state; and (7) resuscitation of the art of Rhetoric. I do not have the space to explain each of these points. However, I do want to address briefly a selection of them. Sacrifice occupies a central place in the text and in Allen's current theorizing. She contends loss and sacrifice are fundamental to democratic life. Understanding what we must sacrifice to achieve political and social transformation allows us insight into understanding to what extent we must fight to preserve democracy. In Chapter 3, Allen turns to the important debate between political theorist Hannah Arendt and the novelist Ralph Ellison. By describing Ellison's critique of Arendt's position on Little Rock desegregation, Allen highlights the vital role of sacrifice and why one should not separate political and social issues. That chapter is a gem. Allen's discussion of Hobbes in Chapter 6 provides a very unique reading of the English social contract theorist. Hobbes supported the idealization of unanimity and the repudiation of rhetoric in his theory of the Leviathan. Sovereignty for Hobbes rests in the figure of an all powerful Sovereign as opposed to the People. The Sovereign for him settled issues of distrust, not the masses. Allen questions Hobbes's way of imagining the People, yet she recognizes that Hobbes does put forth the question of how to overcome distrust.

This leads me to my last point on the topic of rhetoric. Chapter 10 as well as the Epilogue advance Allen's claim that we must return to the use of the art of rhetoric, an art form repudiated for centuries. Allen's reading of Aristotle's highly neglected text, THE ART OF RHETORIC, delineation of how to use rhetoric to garner heightened trust, and Epilogue discussion in which the reader witnesses the author composing a letter to members of the Faculty Senate of the University she resides in now compel even the skeptic of rhetoric to consider its possible benefits. For those interested in how I have utilized Allen's theorizing on rhetoric for Caribbean political thought, see the end of my 2003 lecture entitled, "Walter Rodney's Heresy" (...)

I shall leave it to you the reader to judge the text for itself. In closing, if you are committed to transforming democracy, then I urge you to pick up this book.

Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life (Princeton Studies in American Politics)

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A Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Voting Behavior

Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life (Princeton Studies in American Politics)
David E. Campbell
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691125252

Book Description

Why do more people vote--or get involved in other civic and political activities--in some communities than in others? Why We Vote demonstrates that our communities shape our civic and political engagement, and that schools are especially significant communities for fostering strong civic norms.

Much of the research on political participation has found that levels of participation are higher in diverse communities where issues important to voters are hotly contested. In this well-argued book, David Campbell finds support for this view, but also shows that homogenous communities often have very high levels of civic participation despite a lack of political conflict.

Campbell maintains that this sense of civic duty springs not only from one's current social environment, but also from one's early influences. The degree to which people feel a sense of civic obligation stems, in part, from their adolescent experience. Being raised and thus socialized in a community with strong civic norms leads people to be civically engaged in adulthood. Campbell demonstrates how the civic norms within one's high school impact individuals' civic involvement--even a decade and a half after those individuals have graduated.

Efforts within America's high schools to enhance young people's sense of civic responsibility could have a participatory payoff in years to come, the book concludes; thus schools would do well to focus more attention on building civic norms among their students.

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A Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Voting Behavior.......2007-04-02

This book is essentially a sociological analysis of voter participation. The author shows that youth are more or less effectively socialized to treat voting as a civic duty, they carry their normative behavior into adulthood, homogeneous communities favor voting as a civic duty while heterogeneous communities foster voting as a political instrumentality. The volume and quality of the data are excellent, and the author's analysis thorough and credible. The author's suggested policy advice is that schools should do more to promote political participation and foster an ethic of civic duty. This may sound like a throw-away, but it probably is good advice.

I would like to have seen some light shed on the correlates of voter participation---what kinds of people participate for what reasons. Also, are participators higher or lower in happiness, mental health, length of job tenure, success at work and marriage, and so on.

Like many political scientists, Campbell cannot seem to understand (though he presents the argument early in the book) that even voter participation with politically instrumental motives ("I am voting because I want this or that candidate to win/lose") is deeply altruistic. One voter can never make a significant difference in an election with more that 1000 voters participating, so people who claim to be voting for instrumental reasons are simply not correctly explaining their behavior.

How should we interpret politically instrumental voting? Probably, individuals of this type vote to express personal feelings in a socially acceptable venue, and/or they consider their behavior a contribution to an in-group with which they identify ("we people who believe in x"). Possibly, it would be difficult credibly to hold a strong opinion concerning certain public affairs without demonstrating some costly commitment, of which voting is one form.

Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities

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Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0199283990

Book Description

The essays in this volume address the educational issues which arise when national, sub-national, and supra-national identities compete. How can we determine the limits of parental educational rights when the concern of liberalism to protect and promote children's autonomy conflicts with the desire to maintain communal integrity? Given the advances made by the forces of globalization, can the liberal-democratic state morally justify its traditional purpose of forging a cohesive national identity? Or has increasing globalization rendered this educational aim obsolete and morally corrupt? Should liberal education instead seek to foster a sense of global citizenship, even if doing so would suppress patriotic identification? In addressing these and many other questions, the volume examines the theoretical and practical issues at stake between nationalists, multiculturalists, and cosmopolitans in the field of education. The fifteen essays, plus an introductory essay by the editors, provide a genuine, productive dialogue between political and legal philosophers and educational theorists.

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