CQ Press
Advancing the story; broadcast journalism in a multimedia world.
The typewriter and the pay phone no longer figure much in the world of journalism, and some say fact checking and copy editing have gone the way of the dodo as well. However Wenger (media convergence and new media, Virginia Commonwealth U.) and Potter (Executive Director, Newslab) assert that the journalistic tradition is alive and well despite changes in technology, and that content is still king. They give new journalists the basics of journalism and veterans help with advances as they cover reporting (including research tools and strategies and interview basics), gathering news for multimedia formats (including tools and procedures for sound, lighting and video), reporting in depth including beat reporting), writing the story (including planning, structure and accuracy), storytelling visually, writing and producing for the web, producing for TV, delivering the news (including voicing planning and presenting a stand-up, and conducting live shots). (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
All roads lead to Congress; the $300 billion fight over highway funding.
In this case study of the US legislative process, Panagopoulos (political science, Fordham U.) and Schank (director of transportation research, Bipartisan Policy Center) follow the two-year path of the Safe, Affordable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) from its introduction in Congress to its arrival on the President's desk, a process they personally observed while working as fellows in the office of Senator Hillary Clinton. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Combating terrorism; strategies and approaches.
The authors (all at Syracuse University) apply political science, public affairs, and legal perspectives to understanding terrorism and the available strategies, policy options, and approaches that the United States employs or could employ to respond to terrorism. They offer chapters on identifying and assessing the terrorist threat; the causes of and responses to terrorism; interdiction and investigation; law enforcement and its methods; planning for homeland security; incident response; international cooperation; media, government, and terrorism; and military responses to terrorism. Throughout their discussion, they integrate historical case material to illustrate their arguments. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Congressional elections; campaigning at home and in Washington, 5th ed.
Herrnson (director, Center for American Politics and Citizenship, U. of Maryland) presents the fifth edition of a textbook on the politics and processes of congressional elections in the United States. Developments that receive attention in this revision include the increasing complexity of interest group participation, the coming of age of Internet campaigning, and the impact of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Chapters discuss the strategic context of elections, candidates and nominations, campaign organization and financing, party campaigning, interest group activity, competition for campaign resources, campaign strategy, campaign communications, and impacts on governance. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The contemporary Middle East; a documentary history.
Felton (a freelance reporter and former foreign affairs editor for National Public Radio) collects political speeches, diplomatic agreements, United Nations resolutions, and other texts illustrating important developments in the Middle East from World War I to the present. The selection of topics appears to be shaped primarily by US foreign policy concerns and perspectives and thus offers extensive treatment of the Israeli-Arab conflict and peace conferences and Israeli-Palestinian issues, as well as chapters on Lebanon and Syria, Iran, Iraq and the Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Felton provides contextual introductions to each document or set of documents and also includes a comprehensive chronology and a bibliography. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Constitutions of the world, 3d ed.
This text by Maddex (former chief counsel of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States) provides snapshot comparative profiles of 120 national constitutions from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. For each constitution described, Maddex provides information on the development and influences of the constitution, goals and principles found in preambles, fundamental rights granted, divisions of powers within national government and between the central government and the states or provinces, the structure of government, and amendments and the amendment process. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Elections A to Z, 3d ed.
In this encyclopedic reference on U.S. elections, a journalist who has covered elections for many years points out some changes in the American political scene since the higher-priced 2003 edition. Berenson compiles a timeline of milestones in election-related information in some 200 entries from "absentee voting" to "ZZZ" (referring to how boring many citizens find contemporary politics). Entries have been added on "527" organizations, Internet politics, and mid-decade redistricting. Extensive reference material includes a summary of: the major parties' conventions, debates, presidents and vice-presidents up to the 2004 election; members of Congress (by overall number, minorities, and women) up until 2007; and Web sites. A trial subscription to the online edition is available. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The evolving presidency; landmark documents, 1787-2008, 3d ed.
Nelson (political science, Rhodes College) presents a documentary history of the American presidency that focuses on the founding and on the modern presidency. Among the 53 documents included are extracts from The Federalist Papers, important presidential addresses, Supreme Court cases affecting presidential power, reports of Congressional investigations, and materials related to important events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nixon's visit to China. Each document is introduced by an essay placing the document in historical and political context. New to this edition are eight documents, some reflecting significant recent events such as the invasion of Iraq and George W. Bush's frequent use of signing statements, while others fill perceived gaps in the previous edition (e.g. the Pendleton Act, Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points, and the Teapot Dome scandal. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Landmark decisions of the United States Supreme Court, 2d ed.
Organized chronologically by decade, this reference presents summaries of U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 18th century through 2007, with 80 new historical cases added since the 1st edition was published in 2001, and 65 new cases from the 2006-7 term. Exploring the material contained in the cases adds up to a political history of the United States, with many addressing social and religious issues that remain burning today. The summary of each case gives an overview of the case and its context, the perspectives of the Court and the litigant, and the implications of the decision. A short list of references concludes each entry. Both case and subject indexes are provided. The reference is suitable for college students and the general reader. Finkelman is at Albany Law School; Urofsky is at Virginia Commonwealth U. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Legislative drafter's desk reference, 2d ed.
Filson and Strokoff (both with the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the US House of Representatives) present this updated reference for professional legislative drafters on general considerations in form and word usage; uniquely federal forms and styles; the role of courts in law drafting; and drafting regulations. The text also helps the drafter begin the bill or law by defining the problem involved, searching out the collateral questions, and organizing the bill. Additional consideration is given to amendatory tools and devices for coping with complexity in content. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The libertarian illusion; ideology, public policy, and the assault on the common good.
While libertarians may not have much visibility in American politics, they do wield influence in policy, according to Hudson (political science, Providence College), who finds libertarian policy proposals to be illusory in a number of ways. First, they do not deliver what they promise and fail to anticipate unpleasant consequences, as he endeavors to show through discussion of libertarian proposals on economic deregulation and tax policy that have been enacted and analysis of the likely effects of proposals to privatize Social Security or establish "consumer-driven" health care. Second, because they mask the true libertarian goals, as in the case of Social Security personal investment accounts, a proposal that Hudson argues is a Trojan horse for Social Security abolition. He instead advocates for a communitarian vision of the United States. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Limits and loopholes; the quest for money, free speech, and fair elections.
Campaign finance, observe Farrar-Myers (political science, U. of Texas at Arlington) and Dwyre (political science, California State U. at Chico), is a policy area that serves as a case for understanding the role of competing and conflicting core values in driving American politics. This observation serves as the underlying theoretical framework for their analysis of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 as it wound through the entire policy process, including congressional legislation, presidential approval and implementation through the Federal Election Commission, and judicial interpretation in the Supreme Court. They also examine how candidates, parties, interest groups, corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals responded to the BCRA during the 2004 and 2006 elections. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The political economy of East Asia; striving for wealth and power.
Rather than attempt a comprehensive discussion of the political economy of East Asia — defined here as inclusive of China, the Koreas, Japan, Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines — Wan (government and politics, George Mason U.) instead opts to highlight significant issues and developments. Thus, after he surveys the national systems of political economy, he offers individual chapters examining China as the principal shaping force of the traditional East Asian order as compared to the West, the order-creating imperial efforts of the West and Japan, the successful models of the "East Asian miracle," and the economics of the Asian financial crisis. More thematic and less geographically narrow chapters are offered on the political economics of East Asian production, trade, finance, monetary relations, and regionalism. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Politics in France.
This work by Hauss (public and international affairs, George Mason U.) is an introductory textbook on French politics. He approaches the topic from within a relatively standard format, first offering chapters that provide an overview of political and social geography and summarize historical developments and then presenting individual treatments of political culture and participation, political parties and elections, state institutions, domestic public policy, France within Europe, foreign policy, and the likely impacts of the recent election of President Sarkozy. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Politics in the American states; a comparative analysis, 9th ed.
Gray (political science, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Hanson (political science, Indiana U.) present a textbook on state politics in the US. Each chapter combines broad general coverage with more detailed descriptions of particular states in order to give readers a balanced view of the diversity of state political arrangements and realities. The text's 14 chapters address the socioeconomic and political context of the states, intergovernmental relations, parties and elections, interest groups, the initiative process, legislative politics, governors and the executive branch, politics and the judicial process, state corrections policy (new to this edition), fiscal policy, state health and welfare programs, the politics of education, economic and social regulation, and economic development and infrastructure policy. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Political science research methods, 6th ed.
The sixth edition of this textbook is presented by Johnson (political science and international relations, U. of Delaware) and Reynolds (emeritus, political science, U. of Delaware) with the same primary objectives as the first: to illustrate the political science empirical research process and the value of its methodologies, to provide students with the tools necessary for conducting their own research and evaluating the work of others, and to give those with limited mathematical backgrounds an understanding the statistical calculations used in social science research. Following illustrative cases of the products of empirical research and a discussion of the basic premises of political science research, they present chapters on hypotheses, concepts, and variables; measurement; research design; conducting a literature review; sampling; direct and indirect observation; document analysis; survey research and interviewing; first steps in statistics; investigating relationships between two variables; and multivariate analysis. They also include an annotated example of a research report. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
