The Everything American Government Book: From the Constitution to Present-Day Elections, All You Need to Understand Our Democratic System (Everything® Series)

With elections coming up next year, I thought it would be good to take a refresher course about our government, especially since my classroom experience with this consisted mainly of memorizing a bunch of facts to regurgitate on a test without practical application of anything.This book provides a good overview of the various facets of our government, from the federal down to the local level but focusing mainly on federal. That said, I felt the most valuable part of this book was the appendices that contained the Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution along with its amendments. The best thing is to read these yourself and be impressed at the wisdom and principles of our founding fathers, especially at how it was achieved with such an economy of words. Today's practitioners of red tape and bureaucracy should be ashamed of themselves for turning government into a bloated bag of wind primarily concerned with its own survival rather than the nurturing of the people it is supposed to be governing.Like I said, the text of the book provides a good overview but is pretty much just a rehash of the original documents. I felt reading the original documents was more worthwhile when it came to the particulars of the law and how our government was structured. Where I felt the book was useful was its discussion of political influence within our system - such as the effect of lobbyists, the media, PAC's, etc., and it made me dizzy just thinking of all the possibilities for corruption which can and do take place in our system. That anyone could rise above this to do great things for this country is pretty amazing in itself.Anyway, to sum up, this book is a good, relatively inexpensive way to bone up on how our system of government works.

We purchased this book as a "study guide" for my son who was taking Civics in H.S. It is a good book with a lot of good info, but it is much too much to use as a study guide. It is best for someone who has a bit of time on their hands to read and digest the info.

I love this book. I teach an introductory government and law course to high schoolers, and was looking to review my material. I got this book to freshen up on the basics, and it's been wonderful. Obviously I go into more detail in my course, but I love the way it's set up and allows for really easy understanding. If you're a new teacher about to teach a course on government, this book is an excellent place to start.

This answers every question that a person could possibly have about how our government works in a non-boring and extremely interesting manner. My knowledge of government really needed a brushing up on and this book did just that. The author did a fantastic job of taking a dry subject (to me anyway) and making it a real page-turner.

This is a worthwhile introductory book. One can start without knowing anything and the book arms the reader with enough ammo to start making sense of the news. The book is of digestible length, about 250 pages long. It covers Federal, State, and Local government institutions and processes. It focuses mostly on the Federal level, but gives enough information about state and local government to equip the reader with a decent "news translator" when picking your local newspaper.

Provides a nice overview of the workings of American government and the U.S. constitution. Useful as a refresher or for anyone who wants to learn how the U.S. government is structured. Readable and informative. Unfortunately, this book was published in 2004, and so does not cover the Obama or Trump administrations, but recommended nonetheless.

In the current political climate , I wanted to brush up on American Government, since it’s been about 30 years since I was in college! This is a great resource. Clear, concise explanations and an index to help locate the exact law or policy you are seeking. Highly recommended

This is a great refresher on our government. I only wish I had purchased the print version as there were pages I’d like to have dog eared!

Ce livre est très simple à lire et explique avec simplicité le système de gouvernance américain. Il permet de mieux comprendre comment il fonctionne.