Clued in to Politics
A Critical Thinking Reader in American Government

Fourth Edition

Edited by:

Christine Barbour - Indiana University, USA
Matthew J. Streb - Northern Illinois University, USA

Courses:
Introduction to American Government | Introduction to American Government

November 2013 | 424 pages | CQ Press

Clued in to Politics is a collection of contemporary American government readings (more than half new to this edition) that uses proven pedagogy for modeling critical thinking. The editors write a contextual headnote—“why we chose this piece”—and then follow every reading with questions that employ the CLUES method: Consider the source, Lay out the argument, Uncover the evidence, Evaluate the conclusion, and Sort out the political implications. By consistently walking students through a process for close reading and analysis, students pick up the habit of critical thinking and internalize a process that moves them far beyond regurgitating information. The chapters line up with coverage in introductory American government texts.

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Chapter 1 Introduction to American Politics

1.1 A Remarkable, Historic Period of Change

Ezra Klein

1.2 The Rebirth of American Civic Life

Robert D. Putnam

1.3 Inaugural Address

John F. Kennedy

Chapter 2 Political Culture and Ideology

2.1 Harmony and the Dream

David Brooks

2.2 America’s New Culture War: Free Enterprise vs. Government Control

Arthur C. Brooks

2.3 Left, right: The brain science of politics

Kate Gluek

2.4 Today’s Politics: Coalition of Transcendent vs. Coalition of Restoration

Ronald Brownstein

2.5 Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone?

Thomas Edsall

2.6 Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln

Chapter 3 Immigration and American Demographics

3.1 Not Legal Not Leaving

Jose Antonio Vargas

3.2 Why the Red States Will Benefit Most from Immigration

Joel Kotkin

3.3 The End of Multiculturalism

Lawrence E. Harrison

3.4 What America Will We Pick?

Eugene Robinson

3.5 I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King Jr.

Chapter 4 Federalism and the Constitution

4.1 “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” for Friday, May 15, 2009

Keith Olbermann

4.2 An Iowa Fox in California’s Hen House

Editorial, The Press Democrat

4.3 Our Imbecilic Constitution

Sanford Levinson

4.4 Federalist No. 51

James Madison

Chapter 5 Civil Liberties

5.1 Obama’s New Frame: Gun Rights Vs. The Right to Life

Jill Lawrence

5.2 The courts, birth control and phony claims of ‘religious liberty’

Barry W. Lynn

5.3 We are Shocked, shocked…

David Simon

5.4 Dead Letter Office

Dahlia Lithwick

5.5 Federalist No. 84

Alexander Hamilton

Chapter 6 Civil Rights

6.1 Segregated prom tradition yields to unity

Jamie Gumbrecht

6.2 A Father’s Journey

Frank Bruni

6.3 Trent Franks’s abortion claim and the manly Republican Party

Dana Milbank

6.4 A More Perfect Union

Barack Obama

Chapter 7 Congress

7.1 Let’s Just Say It: The Republicans Are the Problem

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein

7.2 Say Goodbye to Gridlock in Washington

Ira Shapiro

7.3 Big State, Small State

Adam Liptak

7.4 The Great Gerrymander of 2012

Sam Wang

7.5 Declaration of Conscience

Margaret Chase Smith

Chapter 8 The Presidency

8.1 The Real Agenda

Editorial, New York Times

8.2 How to Measure for a President

John Dickerson

8.3 The Presider

Andrew Sullivan

8.4 The Powerless Presidency

Ryan Lizza

8.5 Excerpt from Speech to Congress

Abraham Lincoln

Chapter 9 Bureaucracy

9.1 In Artist’s Freeway Prank, Form Followed Function

Hugo Martin

9.2 Edward Snowden Is No Hero

Jeffrey Toobin

9.3 Judge Blocks New York City’s Limits on Big Sugary Drinks

Michael M. Grynbaum

9.4 Special Message to the Congress Recommending the Establishment of a Department of National Defense

Harry S. Truman

Chapter 10 The Courts

10.1 Obstruction of Judges

Jeffrey Rosen

10.2 No More Mr. Nice Guy

Jeffrey Toobin

10.3 Supreme Court Weighs Cases Redefining Legal Equality

Adam Liptak

10.4 The Cost of Compromise

Linda Greenhouse

10.5 Federalist No. 78

Alexander Hamilton

Chapter 11 Public Opinion

11.1 Party On, Dudes!

Matthew Robinson

11.2 The Rise of the Poll Quants (or, Why Sam Wang Might Eat a Bug)

Tom Bartlett

11.3 Pro-Life and Pro-Choice

Mark Mellman

11.4 The Other War Room

Joshua Green

11.5 Will the Polls Destroy Representative Democracy?

George Horace Gallup and Saul Forbes Rae

Chapter 12 Political Parties

12.1 GOP vs. Voting Rights Act

William Yeomans

12.2 Conservatives, Don't Despair

David Frum

12.3 The Senate's 'Manchurian candidates'

Steve LaTourette

12.4 Introducing the Purple Party

Kurt Andersen

12.5 Farewell Address

George Washington

Chapter 13 Interest Groups

13.1 Shy No More, N.R.A.’s Top Gun Sticks to Cause

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jodi Kantor

13.2 For-Profit Colleges Mount Unprecedented Battle For Influence In Washington

Chris Kirkham

13.3 Super PACs get new use -- as lobbying arms on Hill

Dave Leventhal

13.4 Federalist No. 10

James Madison

Chapter 14 Voting and Elections

14.1 A Vast Left-Wing Competency

Sasha Issenberg

14.2 On Voting, Listen to John Lewis

Michael Waldman

14.3 Obama vs. Campaign Finance Laws

John Wonderlich

14.4 Concession Speech

Al Gore

Chapter 15 The Media

15.1 Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Clay Shirky

15.2 The Unskewed Election

Ben Smith and Ruby Cramer

15.3 Tearing down the conservative echo chambe

Joe Scarborough

15.4 Obama, the Puppet Master

Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen

15.5 5 (Weird) Ways Government is Experimenting with Social Media

Ryan Holmes

15.6 Mr. Hearst Answers High School Girl’s Query

William Randolph Hearst

Chapter 16 Domestic Policy

16.1 Zero Tolerance Lets a Student’s Future Hang on a Knife’s Edge

Barry Siegel

16.2 Has President Obama Done Enough for Black Americans?

George Condon Jr. and Jim O’Sullivan

16.3 President, Democrats must now focus on the real problem: Spending

Mitch McConnell

16.4 Fireside Chat

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Chapter 17 Foreign Policy

17.1 Long Engagements

George Packer

17.2 The Case for Missile Defense

Steve Bonta

17.3 Fund—Don’t Cut—U.S. Soft Power

David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon

17.4 Speech Before the National Association of Evangelicals

Ronald Reagan

Short, topical readings. Love the rationale at the beginning of each reading about why the authors selected it and the discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

Dr Lauren Copeland

Political Science Dept, Baldwin-Wallace College

October 6, 2016

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Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

Fully updated with new readings, the fourth edition covers the latest developments, issues, and trends in American government and politics.

KEY FEATURES:

Unique critical thinking approach: The book models analytic thinking and applies the CLUES method to help readers internalize a process for reading analytically.
Currency: The book’s readings are up-to-date and relevant, with a student audience in mind with every selection.
Breadth of Media Sources: One reading in every section is a classic, while the other readings are drawn from a variety of media, including books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, speeches, and letters.

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Clued in to Politics
A Critical Thinking Reader in American Government

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