Textbook Review - Political Science

 Vig, Norman J., and Michael Faure. Green Giants?: Environmental Policies of the United States and the European Union. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Print. The United States was for many years a leader in environmental policy.However, this role is being supplanted by those of the European Union. It is important for students of environmental policy to get a global perspective.  Both the U.S. and the Europe face the same problems in environmental regulation. There are different governmental structures in the U.S. and the European Union. However, the aspects of federalism in both are similar. This book is appropriate for upper level and graduate courses in environmental policy where there are small classes encouraging discussion.

Text: The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood by Rashid Khalidi, ISBN 0807003085 Course: The Case for Justice Between Israel and Palestine The Iron Cage is another nonfiction reading specified for the course The Case for Justice. This book focuses on a more commonly reviewed time period for this conflict: The British Mandate between 1920 and 1948. Although the preface was incredibly difficult to read, the rest of the book managed to read fairly well. The content is not so different from other books of the type. However, the book gives the student a chance to see the conflict from the Palestinian perspective, something that does not show up in American journalism or politics very often. In addition, this book shows the reader seemingly ridiculous historical occurrences that otherwise are ignored. One of this is the fact that the Jewish state was built from a minority, while the Arab majority became Immigrants and refugees in a geographical area that they dominated. Although this seems improbable, the book examines just what political, social, and religious situation had to be present for the unlikely to become reality.

James Morone’s Hellfire Nation drives home the point that America has always been, and likely will always be, a nation that believes in “us versus them.” From the Puritans’ first days to the modern war on drugs, Morone shows how every major social movement in American history, almost all of which went against accepted societal norms, were met with fervid opposition, who inevitably labeled the acts as immoral processes that would derail the American dream. The movements may have changed over time, but the fact remains that we still tend to persecute rather than celebrate that which is different. Hellfire Nation is not a one-culture book. On the contrary, it teems with life from all sectors: the poor and the elites, abolitionists and slave holders, Puritans and progressives, WASPs and other immigrants, all to relate how America has benefited from being a land of varying cultures and classes. As is shown time and time again, however, mainstream America is still very much a one-culture nation. Revolutionary reformers always emerge from the underprivileged: women, blacks, immigrants, and the working class. Sadly, very little has changed in three hundred years; the morally righteous are still white, well-off Christian men. The cause of much of this vehement refusal to accept others’ culture, Morone implies, may be a kind of identity crisis. Disregarding Native Americans (as we so often have and continue to do), there is no such thing as a full-blooded American. Perhaps several hundred years from now that may change, but the country is still too young to have an authentic heritage. Even three centuries after the fact, ask an American about their ancestry and you’ll always hear the same names: English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Italian, every country except one. When asked about heraldry, no one ever says they’re strictly American. The result is the haunting question that Morone brings up time and again: who are we? The depressing answer is that we still do not know, and what is worse is that seemingly the only way to reach a conclusion is by ruling out what is definitely not “American.” …The Puritans’ Indian wars offer one prototype for American race politics: this other could be kept apart—segregated on the frontier, steered into special villages, or sold into slavery. Europeans enforced the segregation by violence and justified it by imagining moral danger to a God-fearing people. This time, a vividly different tribe defined the Puritan community by showing its members what they must avoid becoming. That boundary, built of race and morals, would always haunt theUnited States. The people who found themselves by segregating others would prove to beAmericaat its most illiberal, Americans at their most deeply un-American. (Morone 82) The “Puritan quest,” according to Morone, has always and likely will always be the absurdity that is “mutual love within the community, expulsion for anybody who might be contrary minded” (Morone 41). Rather than try to embrace those differences, we instead have always seen fit to treat any deviation from the norm as an attack on our moral foundation. “Political life,” says Morone, “constantly gets entangled in two vital urges—redeeming “us” and reforming “them” (3). Hellfire Nation serves as a vivid example of what the conservative system can do in a real society.  As quoted by Morone, John Winthrop asserted that “God almighty” has ordained that “some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, others mean and in subjugation.” Although there is an admonishment for the rich who prey on the poor, “the poor and despised” should not “rise up…and shake off their yoke.” Morone draws the appropriate conclusion: “Men must defer to their leaders, servants to masters, women to men” (35). Just as conservatism mandates, proper obedience in society is the product of a proper upbringing. “‘The evils that abound among us’ always seem to ‘proceed from defects as to family government.’ Social disorder, rapid change, and cultural confusion all provoke the ancient quest for the ‘biblical family,’ for godly male authority” (Morone 106). Likewise, the innocent must be protected from the “others” who seek to tempt them to misdeeds. It is a legacy that Morone says has stayed with Americans from the very beginning, the need to root out and stop all “immoral others” that would destroy our very moral society. …The Puritans backed up self-control with institutional power. The church would teach, censure, and save; the state would root out and punish sinners. Through the years, American government would remain in the business of moral discipline…Future generations would forbid interracial marriage, ban birth control, outlaw homosexual acts, and jail men who crossed state lines with immoral fancies. When present-day policy specialists recommend backing off the war on drugs, they hear a familiar retort: the state must send a strong moral message to our children (66). Seemingly every fringe group in American history has at some point been the subject of intense persecution. Morone suggests just a handful for instance: “Savage Indians, satanic witches, Irish priests, Mormon polygamists, slave traders, saloon keepers, smut peddlers, drug pushers, Internet providers, and generations of black men” have all been accused of hurting our American ideal (2). One of the most interesting movements in the book is among the first, the “Antinomian heresy” of Anne Hutchinson and her followers. The Puritans, as strong believers in conservative ideals, were already ill at ease at the idea of a female preacher; women were to subjugate themselves to men under both the moral and political order. Hutchinsonis especially interesting, given that it was probably what she preached that most bothered the established hierarchy. Her sermons encouraged people to return to the basic tenants of Calvinism, which preached that man’s fate was determined at creation, and that no amount of earthly deeds could change that. She was not only breaking the mandate that ordered people to accept their given positions in life, she was threatening the actual foundation upon which New England was built. Suddenly all the self-righteous clamoring of the ministry was completely useless. “The jeremiads, the elaborate Puritan rules of conduct, the entire framework of the holy commonwealth were all useless, even heretical” (Morone 57). It is during this conflict that New England began to follow in the footsteps of the country it had just fled, for the very same reasons: as Morone points out, “New Englandelites were busy transforming what had been a mechanism of protest into the official faith of a powerful establishment. They were organizing the machinery of authority” (58). It would leave a lasting impression on American religion and politics. “The moral rules reinforce civic order, social status, and political power…The orthodox see immutable laws that fix good and evil in a divinely appointed frame…The progressives…find grace turning on personal, subjective, ethical norms. The two perspectives have taken turns as the establishment and the rebellious” (67). Another of Morone’s most interesting essays is on the Puritan attack of witchcraft. The most logical reason for the sudden burst of irrationality suggested is that “a dynamic society outgrew its social and political institutions. The witchcraft frenzy came, in part, from an urge to force secular problems into a moral frame” (82). While the witches “offered the Puritan leaders exactly what every other looming enemy offered them—a shared identity, a renewed mission for a floundering people,” (87) this enemy was “invisible and powerful” and “lurked everywhere.” Additionally, “Indians could be segregated, even slaughtered, without disrupting Puritan communities; but witches were neighbors, wives, and sisters.” It was such a bitter crusade that the “Puritan moral framework” collapsed on itself. Worse still, future generations would not learn from this experience, only repeat its mistakes. “They would also try to pin social tensions on hidden, immoral villains…[and] abandon their own inconvenient legal norms in a clumsy rush for justice” (83). “The witches offered the Puritan leaders exactly what every other looming enemy offered them—a shared identity, a renewed mission for a floundering people” (Morone 87). The simple truth of the matter is that almost all the accused witches were women. Carol Karlsen, as summarized by Morone, suggests that the reason for this lies in the fact thatNew England’s entire political order, to progress from generation to generation, relied on male inheritance. Most ofNew England’s supposed witches “were women who had inherited estates, disrupting the ‘orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to another’” (95-96); clearly this could very easily disrupt the sexual hierarchy imposed by the moral order. Once again, women who existed outside the social “norms” were persecuted as different, disobedient, or downright immoral. By far the most interesting of Morone’s explorations, at least in my opinion, is his examination of the Great Awakening in the first half of the 19th century. Four distinct moral innovations arose over and over in various sermons. Once and for all, Calvinism as it had always been known was thrown aside, and people instead embraced the idea that anyone could be redeemed through enough faith. They also pushed for personal responsibility for salvation; in other words, “no frowning clergyman would render judgments about God’s intentions” (Morone 127). Religion pushed into the popular sectors, through such acts as discarding formal church music and Latinate sermons in favor of a more personal, dynamic experience. Lastly, preachers told of the virtues of personal discipline in sobriety, piety, and hard work, which simultaneously served to “negotiate the transition to industrial capitalism” that was rapidly emerging. “Inculcating personal virtues helped break the inefficient habits of an artisan and farm community—the lunchtime rum, the spontaneous vacation, the afternoon off. Christian discipline would bend workers to the regulated, clock-driven monotony of mill and factory” (127). The end result, or at least the one most indebted to the Second Great Awakening, was the abolitionist movement. Abolitionists “simply redirected all that moral energy by lifting the fight against slavery above the crowd of righteous causes. They transformed slavery into the nation’s greatest mortal sin” (Morone 144). Yet again it became an “us versus them” issue of morality battling immorality, but the interesting turn in this case is that there is no clear definition for what is right and what is wrong. Much like Morone, I find it hard to believe that America will always be a volatile powder keg of emotion as far as morals are concerned. We can blame the Puritans if we want, and surely they are at least partly responsible, but the primary reason is most likely because as stated earlier, we still have not determined who we are, what we are made of, what makes an American just that. The only safe way to understand who we are, is by deciding what we are not. It is a determination that changes with each generation, but just as Morone asserts, we have always been and will remain Puritans all.  

I truly hate politics and I hate reading about them more, and it seems that in every history class and every political science class we spend half the time arguing. This book was an easy read that showed varied opinions so everyone’s argument was (usually) supported, and class went smoother. It focuses on the differences between what they call popular Democrats and elite Democrats. Popular Democrats are more leftist who look out for human needs, and they believe everyone deserves a say in politics, and elite Democrats support big business and believe that the typical people should follow experts and elites in running the country. This book is smaller but really thick, and the writing is small., I had to wear reading glasses when I usually do not. It is well-written and entertaining enough; you can get through a chapter in about forty-five minutes. It does offer many viewpoints to work with and therefore, writing papers from it is extremely easy. I suggest just reading through the chapter the vocabulary and reviews do not seem too helpful at all. I deceived to sell this book right away because I see no real use for it in my future.

Cases in Comparative Politics (Third Edition) Patrick H. O'Neil, Karl Fields, Don Share

This is one of the two books used in my Comparative Politics class. I think that this book works really well for a beginner level Political Science class.  It can be a little dry at times, but it does not bother me because I appreciate the lack of fluff in the book.  It breaks down individual countries and their political systems into the simplest way that they can be and it is easy to follow and understand the material.  I would recommend this textbook for a class.  However, depending on how in depth a student or professor is intending to go in the class, this book alone may not be suitable for the class.  The book lacks discussion on the cultural aspects of nations, which is important because it deeply affects the organization of certain states.  But, this book accomplishes what it sets out to do: lay down a bare bones foundation of the political systems of a multitude of nations.  It is not the most interesting text on the market, but I appreciate it for its straightforward approach which I finds simplifies a potentially complicated subject.

American Public Policy is a textbook that many professors use when teaching an introductory Public Policy course. Although the textbook was not my favorite in the world, it covered everything we learned in class well. The textbooks strength lies in explaining theories of public policy. These theories can be confusing because many are complicated, and lots of the theories have hyphenated names. Keeping track of all of them, let alone applying them can be daunting, but the textbook does a good job sorting them out for you. It has very useful tables that let you compare and contrast these theories easily. The writing itself is not very exciting. This is not entirely the writers fault, as the theoretical framework for public policy is hard to dress up, but it still can be unnecessarily dry and difficult to read. The book also spends too much time in the theoretical and not enough time actually showing how these theories can be applied to actual public policy. If the author wrote more about concrete happenings instead of abstract ideas, the book would probably be an easier read, which would satisfy both of my complaints. Overall, this book should be helpful for anyone taking a public policy class. 

Did you know that most of the political science textbooks are available online? Or at least that's what the publishers say. There are advantages to an online textbook - they are generally cheaper. Which is important because upper divisions political science classes have a lot of reading and a lot of books. If you get them online at least you can save a little money.  Also, press your professors to get access to the online information for a print textbook. When I worked as a TA I was given an access code to the publisher's website for the book. The website had review questions, outlines, and general information that would've been very helpful to the students. Instead of the students being able to get online for the information, I had to  get online and print it  out because the professor didn't want to go through the hassle of asking for a general access code for his students.  I really think that more professors should transition to online books. It makes life easier for students and is actually cheaper. The problem is that the professors won't get as large a cut of money if the book is theirs. I've had so many professors who assign their book, or their friend's book, simply to gain access to a paycheck. It stinks. 

Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents By: Richard E. Neustadt ISBN: 0029227968 This book was used in a Presidential Politics class. The book examines presidents from Roosevelt to Reagan and examines how they used their presidential power. Neustadt examines whether the President in question was a leader or a clerk - he examines what actions they took to decide the answer to this question. Also, he looks at how the various Presidents handled their power: Did they use it to persuade? Did they use their power to establish a good reputation and then use that reputation to persuade? Lastly, Neustadt examines how to view a President from a later position. In the first part of his analysis, he tried to do a "real-time" analysis - and analysis of their action in their time. In the second part of his book he looks back at the Presidents.  This book is long, but it is a required book for most Political Science students. If you are going to be studying American politics, this book is one of the most well known presidential scholarship pieces. I used it in 1 undergraduate course and 3 graduate level course. It was also required reading for my comprehensive exams.  It is worth it to get the book in paperback rather than electronically so you can always have a copy with notes. 

Modernist and Fundamentalist Debates in Islam Edited by Mansoor Moaddel and Kamran Talattof ISBN: 1403960925 This book was used in a class titles, "Islamic Politics and the Middle East." The stated goal of the class was to try and understand the varying view points that are present in the Middle East and Islam and look at how those view points interact with the different levels of society.  The book is a reader. A reader is a book with many different essays. Most of the essays in a reader are excerpted. They are then grouped by subject area. The goal is to give the student a broad idea of the different areas involved without requiring the student to read 100 journal articles. The book was well edited. It was a good book to use because the introduction of the book laid out the two viewpoints presented: modernist and fundamentalist.  I think that without that early introduction to the two view points, the whole idea of dueling articles would have become muddied. This is especially true for a student who is not very knowledgeable in this area of politics. The other thing the book did well was grouping the articles together. Sometimes the articles are placed in groups that do not have much cohesion. This reader had all the articles grouped nicely. It was an easy read and helped improve my understanding of the world. That is all you can ask of a book. 

The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory ISBN: 9780199548439 This book was a savior for me. I did not like my political theory classes. I really did not like them. I tried hard to read everything, but I got bogged down in all the language and hardly ever completed a full reading of Aristotle or Plato. I broke down and invested in this book. Oxford makes a series of books on politics. They are readers (articles and excerpts). They present all the major issues. I did not hav a single political theory reading that was not covered in this book in some way. They explore everything from justice, the body politic, and contemporary political theory. All the major theorists are well represented in this book. It is not a substitute for trying to read the original works. In fact, I did make it through some original works. I always read the important parts of the original works - I just had to decide what was important. For someone who simply needs an overview of certain theories or theorists, the handbook works great. It also works to give a background in political theory to those who might be in the deep end of a political theory class (like me) and need help making it through.

I have used this book as an instructor. I really liked it. It gave the general overview that was needed and still gave insight into current events. One of the bonuses to this book is that there is a website the publisher made to go with the book. Students can access the website and work on practice exams, vocabulary, and expand their readings.  The book is also fairly apolitical in its writing. There is no clear side that the book leans to. That makes this book ideal for an introduction to government type of class. When the introduction class is taught, it needs to be taught without a political leaning. The book needs to be factual and not liberal/conservative. This is so the students gain access to the structure and ideas of government and can then work on forming their own opinions. The book is divided into chapters that make sense. There is even a supplement for California that teaches students about California government. There are sections of the book that focus on policy development and history as well as the structure of government. This is important because it allows students to get an overview of how government works with certain ideas. I really liked this book for my introductory classes. 

American Government Readings and Cases Peter Woll ISBN: 0673524388 This book is a basic political science reader. Anyone who is taking American Government as an upper division class or a graduate student should have this book. It is an older reader, but it has all the essentials. The reader is sectioned into three parts and each part covers a section of American government. In the book there are excerpts from articles about American government. There are also excerpts from famous cases that have changed the way our society and government operate. Too often people forget that American government is shaped by the United States Supreme Court as well as Congress and the President. The judicial branch gets shorted in most books. In this reader the famous court cases are given equal time with scholarly articles on government.  It is a balanced reader, and none of the information is going to go out of date. I use it when working on problems currently. It is a great citation reference if I am looking for the history of issues in our government. I also have used it to teach independent study to students who need to pass American Government but cannot take the class. It is a lot of heavy reading, and makes you draw your own conclusions. The information is not presented in a fact like manner - like textbooks - but is rather presented in articles that you have to read and understand.

The Global Transformations Reader David Held and Nathony McGrew ISBN: 0765634355 This reader was used in my graduate level Globalization class. It begins with a section on globalization. This section covers what globalization is, the history of globalization, and how it functions. Held, one of the authors, writes an article about how to view globalization. This article was very helpful as it helped me frame the globalization debate.  The rest of the book is made up of excerpts from articles and books that speak about the different aspects of globalization. It covers national identity in a global world, world order and normative choices, culture and society, and global economy. The reader focuses on how the economy interacts with each country in the global society to change things. There are more than a few articles on how globalization damages some countries while helping others. In that sense, this book has a liberal leaning. Liberal leaning in globalization is nothing new - globalization is a liberal idea. The concept of a lack of national boundaries is a liberal idea. In this sense, the book is very biased. I would not recommend it for undergraduate students because they would be too influenced by the way the book leans to be able to look at the ideas objectively. Additionally, the reading is hard. It is not long, it is just dense reading. Without the proper background in economics and political science, a student would be lost with this book.

The Transformation of American Law 1780-1860 Morton J. Horwitz ISBN: 0674903714 This book was one of three used in my History of American Law class. The class sounded good on paper, but the reading was horrible. This book was the worst of the lot. It was dry and dense. I can handle dry or dense, but when the book is both dry and dense it is difficult for me to read. The information about the evolution of American law is given in context. It starts with the development of the common law system in England and how that transferred over into American law. The book also seeks to place the legal developments in economic context. The author believes that the way law has shifted to protect private property is what fueled the economic growth and development of the United States. This book gives all the information - and more - that it needs to give. It hold a particular point of view about law and economics that seems a bit extreme. Th author treats this legal history treatise as a way to show how economic law, private law, and contract law developed and made the United States into the economic powerhouse it is today. It is a weird meld of politics, law, and economics. I clearly did not like the book.