Product Description
This book explains in depth the nature of charismatic political leadership and the processes by which it comes into being. Willner deals with cultural myths, the importance of crisis, the relationship between sexual potency and political power, the role of oratory and political rhetoric, and features engrossing details from the careers of charismatic political leaders of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The spellbinders
This book is a great overall look at charismatic political leaders.It covers charisma from different aspects, and what make someone charismatic.Well written and easy to understand with a good background. ... Read more

Product Description
W. W. Norton & Company and the American Political Science Association are pleased to announce the publication of the Centennial Edition of Political Science: State of the Discipline.
Editors Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner of Columbia University sought to "reflect the vibrant, often contested, diversity of political science while chronicling the past decade’s scholarship and prompting thought about future directions."

Breaking away from a traditional organization around the four major fields of political science, the editors chose to create a framework that focuses first on the state, followed by democracy, then agency, and concluding with means of inquiry.

This volume is an important resource for all scholars interested in reading across fields and includes an essential unified bibliography.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The state of political science at the turn of the century
The editors were empowered to use the 2000 American Political Science Association meeting as the occasion to develop a volume on the state of the discipline. In their preface, Ira Katznelson and Helen Milner state (Page xiii): "Our goal from the outset was to reflect the vibrant, often contested, diversity of political science while chronicling the past decade's scholarship and prompting thought about future directions." The editors begin this edited volume with an Introduction, aptly titled "American Political Science: The Discipline's State and the State of the Discipline." Candidly, they note that political science is not a clearly defined discipline.

The book itself is divided into four parts, not by subfields within the discipline--but by themes. The four: The State in an Era of Globalization; Democracy, Justice, and Their Institutions; Citizenship, Identity, and Political Participation; Studying Politics.

The first part contains seven chapters, each authored by a well know political scientist. The entries examine, for instance, the nature of the state and how it operates in a global era, including the impact of international political economy, conflict and democracy, the continuing relevance of the realist tradition, and how we study the state. Part 2 examines aspects of democracy and justice. There is included here six chapters, focusing on such areas as the nature of democratic theory today,the nature of justice, the relevance of critical theory and postmodernism for democracy, and the like.

Part 3? Citizenship, identity, and political participation. This part includes an array of approaches and perspectives on the subject. The work concludes, in Part 4, with a consideration of varying means by which we study politics. Rational choice theory, game theory, historical institutionalism, formal theory, and even experimentation are among the approaches discussed.

As a perspective on political science at the outset of the 21st century, this book serves nicely. The general public is not likely to find this book to their taste (it assumes that one has a sense of the discipline and concepts widely used in political science). But for those who wish to get a sense of the, as the authors note at one point, "cacophony" within the field, this would be useful.
... Read more

Product Description
Essential Mathematics for Political and Social Research addresses an educational deficiency in the social and behavioral sciences. This is the first book of its kind to specifically address the comprehensive introduction to the mathematical principles needed by modern social scientists.The material introduces basic mathematical principles necessary to do analytical work in the social sciences, starting from first principles, but without unnecessary complexity. The core purpose is to present fundamental notions in standard notation and standard language with a clear, unified framework throughout. Through examples and exercises, this book is intended to not only motivate specific mathematical principles and practices, but also introduce the way that social science researchers use these tools. The intended emphasis is on conceptual understanding of key principles and their subsequent application. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Almost perfect, but not sufficient
Jeff Gill's book is intended as a first entry point into the formalities of current political science. In other words, if you are contemplating becoming a formal modeler (essentially, game-theory-based) or a statistics-based tester of political-scientific hypotheses, AND you fill comfortable with algebra 1 and 2 and some basic notions of calculus, then this should be your atarting point.

Given the goal it sets for itself, this is a very good product -- though not yet a perfect one.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE:

1) Gill writes in an engaging and elegant manner (despite the surprisingly many typos throughout the text, which one hopes concern the prose only). This is a considerable advantage, because many of his competitors use a dry and boring style;

2) He uses many examples, most of which are indeed from politics, as the author and editor are proud to advertise;

3) He goes quite some way into explaining the intuition (i.e. the fundamental logic) behind applying certain mathematical tools to specific political "word problems";

4) Taken together, the book does allow the reader to gain the necessary background to start reading the American Political Science Review meaningfully (rather than reading the abstract and main text and trying to forget about the technicalities);

5) The exercises are generally as well-chosen as the examples.


ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE:

1') Elegance of style comes at the price of relatively poorly structured sections within each chapter (i.e. althought the sequence of the chapters themselves is very pedagogical, the sequence of sections within each chapter is sometimes less so, with repetitions, assumptions that the reader already knows X when X is explained 30 pages down the text, etc).

3') Focusing on the link between political word problems and available math tools, the author sometimes cuts short on the logic of the math tools themselves. For example, permutations, combinations, counting rules, etc, are realtively poorly explained. Some other well-known textbooks on maths for social scientists (e.g. Budnick, or Chiang) spend more time really explaining the math.

4') Although great care is taken to make the successful reader of this book a good political scientist, less attention is given to how to make a reader successful! ((( I think Gill automatically assumes that all buyers of his book will be people working with a highly specialised instructors, rather than people working on their own. )))

5') Although there is no doubt that the exercises are spot on, there is no appendix with the solution (or at least the answer). The Preface talks of some instructor's manual, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere...

ON BALANCE, A NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT PRODUCT. This is very good, but it has to be worked through either with an instructor or with some other applied maths textbook.

Fantastic Starter Edition for Mathematics
This book is the best book of many that I have found for someone who is attempting to decipher the mathematical side of the social sciences.I say this particularly because the author provides useful mathematical tips and insights to variables and terms to those who are not familiar with all of their differing uses in the seperate branches of the social sciences.

Another reviewer said it best when he/she said that this book was written to help readers understand mathematics as a language.This author truly treats the understanding of mathematics as a language teacher does.The author does not fall into the usual trap that so many authors before him have done, which is to assume prior mathematical knowledge beyond algebra. This book makes mathematics far more accessible than its counterparts before it for someone seeking either a refresher course or perhaps to merely buttress their mathematical understanding.

Great Book with Great Price at Amazon
This is a great book with easy-to-understand concepts and examples. I got the book from Amazon on free-supersaving shipping and it came in less than two weeks and the book is in brand-new condition for approximately half the price listed. I think it was a great offer.

Surprisingly better than other options
Jeff's use of political science examples with the range of mathematical constructs makes this a particularly good book for beginning graduate political science students and undergraduate political science students who want to prepare themselves for graduate study.If you are new to political science and looking for a math refresher, at least scan through the book in the library before you adopt something else.My only regret is that the answers to sample problems are only available through a teaching edition. ... Read more

Product Description
The first manuscript of this book went into the fire five minutes before the arrival of the secret police in Communist Poland. The second copy, reassembled painfully by scientists working under impossible conditions of repression, was sent via a courier to the Vatican. Its receipt was never acknowledged, no word was ever heard from the courier - the manuscript and all the valuable data was lost. The third copy was produced after one of the scientists working on the project escaped to America in the 1980s. Zbigniew Brzezinski suppressed it.
Political Ponerology was forged in the crucible of the very subject it studies. Scientists living under an oppressive regime decide to study it clinically, to study the founders and supporters of an evil regime to determine what common factor is at play in the rise and propagation of man's inhumanity to man.
Shocking in its clinically spare descriptions of the true nature of evil, poignant in the more literary passages where the author reveals the suffering experienced by the researchers who were contaminated or destroyed by the disease they were studying, this is a book that should be required reading by every citizen of every country that claims a moral or humanistic foundation. For it is a certainty that morality and humanism cannot long withstand the predations of Evil. Knowledge of its nature, how it creates its networks and spreads, how insidious is its guileful approach, is the only antidote. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Rather Techincal
Somewhat typical of academics,in general, the author has couched his tome in rather technical language.His insights are, however, profound and explain much about why societies cycle like they do.This book is well worth the read, if your vocabulary is advanced enough to grasp his language.

The basic premise of this book is that 6% of the population are amoral, and born that way.They understand power, but the humane virtues, such as mercy, kindness, love, are foreign to their understanding.This reviewer acknowledges this type of person, but feels that environmental concerns play a larger role than genetics.The author believes that if most of us understand that these people exist, and work to minimize their machinations, that we wouldn't have these boom/bust cycles in our societies.Overall, a thought-provoking and useful read.Worthy of more circulation that it gets.

Interesting topic but poorly translated
This is a very interesting subject and a subject that people should be madeaware of. It's about the sociopathic, narcissistic politicians that we have.
The problem with the book was how it was written. It is a translation and a very poor one at that. If you have a PhD in psychology then you may understand the whole book but I found it very confusing. Some of the words I couldn't even find in my dictionary. It is a very dry academic thesis that was poorly translated. We need abook about the subject but written in layman's terms which would be so much more useful and would reach a greater audience which is what this subject needs.

Political Correctness Run Amok
The cover should have been the first red flag.In a book discussing Ponerology, why are all of the "evil" faces on the cover Republicans or the dreaded "dead white Europeans"? Bill Clinton was a stunning sociopath. Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel makes Machiavelli look like a choirboy. Where is Mao? Where is the other liberal icon Fidel Castro? What about Osama Bin Laden?

While the book makes a valid point, making one side angels and the other devils, greatly diminishes the power of the argument.

The cover art was likely not selected by Lobaczewski but by his New York editors and publishers. I'm sure the cover has a certain appeal to folks on the Upper East Side, but to the rest of us, it looks like political correctness run amok. It is a shame they decided to minimize the power of such an important book by trying to score a few cheap shots political points.

do we need to hide our copy
Is it in good order that some of us hide a copy, so after the next Great Pirate power grab...for Jesus and Allah
and Yahweh and scientific advancement, of course...the kids can grow up and have a chance to perhaps see a scientific "work up" of Evil?


Also in relation to this topic, we are all being monitored now for our "subversive views"!

(by an apparent litany of almost two dozen groups)
Who can't stop terrorists with Condi Rice on board,
when the MOSSAD gives them the warning we are going to be attacked in specific details???????



Possibly we allow these attacks, ala' Pearl Harbour as an excuse to go to War?
It has the side benefit of letting these "first do some harm" Doctors peddle drugs to grief stricken
soldiers--at your expense, and get rid of us extras, who are in no wise as valuable as the Pederast/sociopathic
Inbreds running our countries?

Do they drink blood is ALL i want to know?
Do you guys, like kissinger and bresenski , do you eat kids and drink blood?

We wonder?

and why are they always smirking and goofing off ?


Dr. kissinger if there is a hell, your going...what's so funny about that?



AND these same folks poo poo the funding for "the study of the sociopathic and psychopathic mind". Why is that?
Is it as one vlogger surmised, so many Psychiatrists and Politicians would meet the criteria for Sociopath?

A weak effort at the "study of evil"
I guess any psychologically sane person would agree that many psychopaths are able to reach very high positions in the current capitalistic society. It is the power over people that really seems to attract the psychologically immature beings. They want to be controlling others and feel respected - even when there's absolutely no reason for it! And as long as their own pockets stay full, everything will be OK for them. So, politically, it explains why there's absolutely no will to change anything for better - for good.

The term "ponerology" here means the "study of evil." But I would say this book was a very weak effort at it. Overly long and utterly boring. Maybe it was the real reason behind the book's claimed "suppression!"

(Published 1st in 1984. The reviewed edition: 2009, 9781897244470) ... Read more

Product Description
"This book provides an engaging and intellectually challenging introduction to political ideologies, while at the same time giving an accessible route into the subject for those new to politics. Supported by an outstanding companion website, it has strong claims to be the best undergraduate textbook on ideologies on the market."

Dr. Mike Gough, University of East Anglia

Introduction to Political Theory is a text for the 21st century.It shows students why an understanding of theory is crucial to an understanding of issues and events in a rapidly shifting global political landscape. Bringing together classic and contemporary political concepts and ideologies into one book, this new text introduces the major approaches to political issues that have shaped the modern world, and the ideas that form the currency of political debate.

Introduction to Political Theory relates political ideas to political realities through effective use of examples and cases studies making theory lively, contentious and relevant.

This thoroughly revised and updated second edition contains new chapters on global justice and political violence, as well as an expanded treatment of globalisation and the state.

A wide range of pedagogical features helps to clarify, extend and apply students' understanding of the fundamental ideologies and concepts. This is comprised of:

·CCase studies demonstrate how political ideas, concepts and issues manifest in the real world
Â`Focus' boxes encourage students to appreciate alternative viewpoints
ÂA range of thought provoking photographs challenge students to examine concepts from a different angle
ÂSuggestions for further reading and weblinks are also provided to help students to further their understanding

Introduction to Political Theoryis accompanied by an innovative website with multiple choice questions, biographies of key figures in political theory, further case studies and an innovative `how to read' feature which helps students get to grips with difficult primary texts. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a comparative, conceptual introduction to political science, organized topically rather than country-by-country, providing in-depth examples at the end of most chapters to provide greater richness about various countries than a topical treatment would normally provide. The theme of "power and choice," based on a definition of politics as the making of collective choices for a group or state through the use of power, runs through much of the text. ... Read more

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2 illustrations, 1 mapThe history of the American West is a history of struggles over land, and none has inspired so much passion and misunderstanding as the conflict between ranchers and the federal government over public grazing lands. Drawing upon neglected sources from organized ranchers, this is the first book to provide a historically based explanation for why the relationship between ranchers and the federal government became so embattled long before modern environmentalists became involved in the issue. Reconstructing the increasingly contested interpretations of the meaning of public land administration, Public Lands and Political Meaning traces the history of the political dynamics between ranchers and federal land agencies, giving us a new look at the relations of power that made the modern West.Although a majority of organized ranchers supported government control of the range at the turn of the century, by midcentury these same organizations often used a virulently antifederal discourse that fueled many a political fight in Washington and that still runs deep in American politics today. In analyzing this shift, Merrill shows how profoundly people's ideas about property wove their way into the political language of the debates surrounding public range policy. As she unravels the meaning of this language, Merrill demonstrates that different ideas about property played a crucial role in perpetuating antagonism on both sides of the fence.In addition to illuminating the origins of the "sagebrush rebellions" in the American West, this book also persuasively argues that political historians must pay more attention to public land management issues as a way of understanding tensions in American state-building. ... Read more

Product Description
The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science explores the scope, ambition, and effect of the Progressive revolution of a century ago, which relegated the theory and practice of the Founders to an antiquated historical phase. By contrast, our contributors see beyond the horizon of Progressivism to take account of the Founders' moral and political premises and illuminate its effects on our political science and political practice today. It is a study in political philosophy, intellectual history, and current political understanding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Counterrevolutionary Work
This volume comprises eleven essays by academic political scientists assessing the effect of the Progressive movement on their discipline and field of study.The essays are all, or virtually all, expanded versions of papers presented during the centenary convention of the American Political Science Association in late 2003.There are two sections of five essays each:the first dealing with the Progressive attack on the founding principles of the American regime; and the second dealing with the effect of Progressive "reforms" in practice.The central, and by far the longest, essay, by Edward Erler, concerns the Progressive transformation of American constitutional law, and that essay acts as a kind of hinge connecting the two main sections of the book.
Probably the most important essays are the keynote essays of each section, written by Thomas West and John Marini, respectively.West, whose published writings include both esoteric commentaries on ancient political philosophy and also sharp contemporary political analysis, finds the roots of the Progressive revolution in the philosophy of Rousseau and Hegel, which is antithetical to the natural rights tradition at the heart of American constitutional government.Marini, perhaps the most astute observer of the transformation of the American political system wrought by the Progressives, concentrates on the Progressives' substitution of the administrative state for the politics of self-government.
Each of the eleven essays is worthy of note in its own right, and all are redolent of serious research and profound reflection.Because the unifying theme of the volume is a critique of the Progressive "revolution" in political science, particular mention should probably be made of Larry Peterman's concluding essay, which leads the reader back beyond even the political science that informed the American founding, to the founding of political science itself, by Aristotle.
This volume, described by its publisher as a "counterrevolutionary work," must be regarded as indispensable reading for anyone who would understand the transformation of the American regime and as the starting point for recovery of an older (and better) political science.One last note:the careful reader is cautioned not to overlook the endnotes. ... Read more

Product Description
Behind the daily headlines on presidential races and local elections is the theory of the polity 151 or what the end of our politics should be. Harvard s Harvey C. Mansfield, one of America s leading political theorists, explains why our quest for the good life must address the type of government we seek to uphold. He directs our gaze to the thinkers and philosophies and classic works that have proved most influential throughout the ages. Author: Harvey C. MansfieldPages: 58, PaperbackPublisher: Christendom PressISBN: 1-882926-43-9 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great guide for political science students
This book is great for anyone interested in understanding the basic concepts and authors of ancient and modern political philosophy!

Just a guide
The book is a brief chronological account of Western political thought interspersed with some of the author's thoughts. I was disappointed at first when I realized how short this book I had bought was because I was hoping for some meaty reading, but I realized that the main purpose of this book is to direct the reader to the actual texts. Mansfield gives a short list at the end of the book of the best translations.

speedy with a good eye
I was very pleased with the time it took to arrive to my place since my order. The book was also in good condition and any faults it had were clearly marked and assessed with an accurate eye on the web page. thanks for a speedy mail!p.s. the price was remarkable!

Fine, if somewhat short....
This book is a very short summary of political philosophy.Perhaps it is wrong in assuming that a student would not be able to read about this subject in greater detail.After reading this, though, one will want to know more about political philosophy, why one can be both politically active and philosophical, and why politics is important to students, and not just leftist politics.Also, one wonders which political philosophy the author has, as he seems to comment wryly on both conservatism and liberalism with great acuity.A fine read, if somewhat incomplete.

Short, but not the best overview
I bought this guide expecting that it would give a brief high-level overview of the main thinkers and ideas in political philosophy. It didn't do that -- it was more of a political philosopher "sampler", rather than an overview which outlines the high points in the intellectual history of the field. The first 10 pages of the ~50 page essay made some good distinctions & definitions, and emphasized that one should read the "great books" of political philosophy (though it doesn't give a list of those books until the appendix). The rest of the essay wasn't as informative, and just touches on some of the ideas of a couple major philosophers (e.g. Machiavelli, Plato, etc.), and tended to be slightly more interpretive than I like to see in an introduction (intro's should be more objective, because a beginner has a hard time distinguishing opinion from fact).Overall, this book only gave me a "feel" for what political philosophy is,without giving a sense of the entire scope of the field, the connections and/or debate between the various schools of thought, or the relative importance of the various thinkers.Granted, it's hard to give a comprehensive overview in 50 pages, but I think the essay could have been structured better.On the plus side, it is a very short essay -- 50 pages, double spaced. ... Read more

Product Description
The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by 48 top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes chapters surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method; the use of history; the practice and status of case-study research; the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation and coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. It then includes chapters on collective action, social movements and political participation. Part VI opens up with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macropolitical economy of the last two decades. ... Read more

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Does thesciencepart of political science cause your students to break out in a cold sweat? This companion workbook gives students the perfect opportunity to practice each of the methods presented in the text. To maximize their ability to master each technique, the workbook is organized to parallel the text chapter for chapter, breaking out each aspect of the research process into manageable parts, and comes with updated data sets and primary documents. Given invaluable feedback from adopters, this second edition workbook has been restructured so that exercises more consistently increase in complexity and degree of difficulty, and fuller, more explicit directions accompany problems.

... Read more

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A core text for freshman/senior-level courses in Introduction to Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Government; a supplementary text for courses in International Relations and American Government (foreign policy).

Using a chronological organization, this text explains the evolution of political thought over the past three centuries and describes political ideologies in the context of the social, economic, and political circumstances in which they developed. It provides students with a complete understanding of political ideologies and how these concepts relate to their own lives.

Customer Reviews (8)

Great reference book!! Well organized..too the point
"Using a chronological organization, this text explains the evolution of political thought over the past three centuries and describes political ideologies in the context of the social, economic, and political circumstances in which they developed. It provides students with a complete understanding of political ideologies and how these concepts relate to their own lives"...and it does it well!!! Really well organized and easy to read....If you want to know about the political spectrum..this is a great book to learn....I learned alot about my postion on the spectrum..I think most readers will do the same as well

Should a 10th edition have so many typos?
I have several problems with this book.There are factual and logical inaccuracies in it--stuff that's just wrong.The logic of the left-right spectrum and where the status quo line should be placed is almost incomprehensible.Apparently the author spent a whole 15 days touring Cuba, which qualifies him to make all sorts of general statements about Cuban government, history, and daily life, but does not qualify him to spell correctly such Spanish words as "campesino" and "Raul".Which brings me to my biggest peave: there are tons of typos!Many really important ones!I am now reading a section that is actually entitled "Imperalism"--two i's instead of the required three!Within the section the word is randomly spelled correctly about half the time.Does that really pass as good enough?How can we insist on good writing skills from students when books that have had 9 previous bites at the apple still can't get it right?

great book
I'm actually thinking about taking his class next year and i'm going to keep this book for reference. Well written.

Well written
As an introduction to the topic, I think that this book is excellently written. The only problem is that the author gives his opinion in so many places. I think it is good for an author to state his opinion and explain it to people, but not in a book that is an introduction to a topic. In introductions it would be better to let the reader just know about the topic since it is too early for him/her to have an opinion about it. However, the author did explain most ideologies and he was fair in treating them. He did not attack ideologies that were not his own. The book clearly explains most ideologies and the author brings into the discussion economic, political and philosophical issues in a coherent way. Had he not been so opinionated I would have given this book five stars.

Liberal tripe
My daughter has to answer some questions based on parts of this book and I was wondering why she was complaining.All you have to do is read part of it and you see that it's inaccurate and wrong.In a vacuum, I can see how people would fall for this stuff, but with so much more information around us, the book is obviously indoctrination for kindergarteners - it's that simplistic.

I suggest you watch this talk by Evan Sayet. Evan used to write for Bill Maher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c
Evan is talking about the newer strain of liberals - which he calls Modern Liberals - as opposed to the more traditional ones that are aligned with our Founding beliefs.You can see the patterns of Modern Liberalism in all sorts of things.Evan explains why Modern Liberals want the US (and Western Civilization) to lose in Iraq, why they fight increasing the supply of oil (which will help poor people), why they support the Iranian President's verbal attacks on Israel and the US while ignoring the human rights record and his attacks on gays, why mediocre (socialized) healthcare is better than good healthcare, etc, etc, etc.

Please watch the video.

As for my daughter's work, it comes down to answering correctly or according to what the teacher wants.
... Read more

Product Description
To venture into explanation of political action we need some map of our basic options: what kinds of explanations are out there? Even advanced students and scholars can find the landscape difficult to chart. We confront a bewildering maze of partial typologies, contrasting uses of terms, and debate over what counts as explanation. This book makes an argument about the most useful first cut into explanations of action. It illustrates the map with reference to political examples and a wide range of political science literature, but the scheme applies even more broadly across the social sciences and history.

Common terms form the sectors of the map: structural, institutional, ideational, and psychological logics. This book's novelties lie in arguments about how to best define these terms. It narrows them into distinct mechanisms, arriving at basic segments of causal logic into which all explanations of action can be broken down. It also makes them compatible, however, such that we could imagine a world in which all operated while debating how much each caused any given action. Four benefits follow. The typology directs our attention to the most basic debates about what causes what. Its framework is systematic and exhaustive, bounding our explanatory universe. It defines our main approaches in ways that facilitate both competition and combination. Lastly, it leads to revisions of prevailing views on philosophy of science and research design to encourage more open and rigorous debates.

Graduate students will find no other overviews of comparable scope and precision. Scholars of all theoretical inclinations will encounter provocative challenges to their views of theorizing and use of terms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive review of the relevant literature
If you are studying for comprehensive exams in political science, this is a very useful book!! ... Read more

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Updated in a new 8th edition, Empirical Political Analysis introduces students to the full range of qualitative and quantitative methods used in political science research.

Customer Reviews (6)

A solid methods book
I bought this book for a research methods class that I am taking for my Masters in Public Administration program.When the class started, the professor had us switch to another textbook, but I read this book because I had already paid for it and I knew that it would help me with the class. The material was easy to work with and was presented in a logical sequence.

A Tough Subject Clearly Explained
I'm a Junior at a large university, and this book is required for my Research Methods class.I've put off taking this class until now, since I'm not very math-oriented.This book explains research ideas in a very simple way, and each chapter has lots of examples from politics.My professor sometimes also has us read the sample articles that the chapters list.This is extra work, but seeing how real researchers use a method helps me understand it.By the way, there is math in the statistics section, but it's not really that bad.If you're not a natural whiz at research, this is the book for you.

Don't waste your gray matter!
This book talks down to the student. It is elementary to the extent of being obvious. The field has moved on and so should we. Get the King, Keohane and Verba book instead, which is written lucidly and actually isnpires thought.

A Solid and Accessible Textbook on Methodology
The book is clearly written, and I am using it this semester for an undergraduate class I teach. I am not a big fan of textbooks in general, as I rarely use them myself, and when I do, it is mostly for concrete and breif reference purposes. This book is very accessible. I especially liked the chapter on focus groups. The chapter on content analysis is also good, because it conveys very clearly the problems that one faces with this particular method, but at the same time the chapter is not mathematically deep. I find that most of my studnets find this book easy to use. As a book on statistics, it is not very powerful, and the presentation of even the basic methods could use better organization. But overall, this is still a useful text.

Not worth $85.00
I'm using this book for my undergrad political science class on research design and statistical analysis.I have previously used Johnson and Joslyn's book, which is much less expensive than Manheim and Rich.If Ihad known that the bookstore would charge the students so much, I would nothave assigned it.The authors do a good job with research design, but thestatistical section is poorly organized, and has at least one formulaincorrect.If you are looking for a good book on empirical politicalanalysis, you could probably find a better research design book and abetter statistics book for about the same price. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Better Than A Text Book
Definately not biased.Provides a great and perfect introductory understanding of key Political Science concecpts.I would reccomend this by far over a textbook for your first year, or if you just want to learn. ... Read more

Product Description
Most world leaders agree that nuclear terrorism represents the gravest international security challenge today. Many scholars and practitioners, however, argue that the United States remains ill-prepared to cope with this serious and real threat. What role should the U.S. play in confronting and combating this danger? Is nuclear terrorism preventable? What steps have the U.S. already taken to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and what future steps should the U.S. government take? Esteemed scholars, scientists and policymakers address these crucial questions from all sides – strategic, tactical, ideological, and technical. This special volume of The ANNALS clarifies and assesses that threat of a nuclear terrorist attack and examines possible solutions for preventing such a catastrophic event. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Possibly the best edited volume on the issue
I have spent a year now researching nuclear terrorism, and find this volume possibly the most helpful of all. It contains a fine array of excellent accounts of many facets of nuclear terrorism by the best experts there are, like Bunn and Wier and Hecker, and edited by Allison, himself quite a capacity in the field. While these names might not tell you much, I'm telling you they are authorities in their field. Don't let the 'scientific paper' format scare you off: these papers read like a novel. Along with Ferguson and Potter's "The four faces of nuclear terrorism", this edited volume covers just about all you need about this dreadful threat.

How Do We Get This Book Read By the Politicians
I hate to say it, but I find this little book almost (note almost) amusing.

We know that there are people out there who hate us. We know that they would like to use nuclear devices to attack us. We know that getting things into this country is not that difficult (witness drugs). We know that nuclear devices are not difficult to build - The US built them sixty years ago, and so far as we know no country that has attempted to build one has failed.

So one day, it seems likely that someone will set one off somewhere.

They there will be all kinds of crying about how there was plenty of evidence it was happening (yes, it's in this book), and why didn't 'they' do something about it.

Perhaps because as in the election just passed the hot topics were Iraq, the price of gasoline, illegal immigration, and look at all these bad things that my opponent has done. And you can be that the people we elected haven't read this book. I'd send a copy to my elected officials, but they wouldn't read it. ... Read more

Product Description

"A significant and thoughtful discussion of key issues in the philosophy of social science, one designed to encourage a richer variety of methodological work in political science."
—Kristen Renwick Monroe, editor of Perestroika! The Raucous Rebellion in Political Science

Making Political Science Matter brings together a number of prominent scholars to discuss the state of the field of Political Science. In particular, these scholars are interested in ways to reinvigorate the discipline by connecting it to present day political struggles. Uniformly well-written and steeped in a strong sense of history, the contributors consider such important topics as: the usefulness of rational choice theory; the ethical limits of pluralism; the use (and misuse) of empirical research in political science; the present-day divorce between political theory and empirical science; the connection between political science scholarship and political struggles, and the future of the discipline. This volume builds on the debate in the discipline over the significance of the work of Bent Flyvbjerg, whose book Making Social Science Matter has been characterized as a manifesto for the Perestroika Movement that has roiled the field in recent years.

Contributors include: Brian Caterino, Stewart Clegg, Bent Flyvbjerg, Mary Hawkesworth, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Gregory J. Kasza, David Kettler, David D. Laitin, Timothy W. Luke, Theodore R. Schatzki, Sanford F. Schram, Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, Corey S. Shdaimah, Roland W. Stahl, and Leslie Paul Thiele.