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Clued in to Politics
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Clued in to Politics
A Critical Thinking Reader in American Government

Fourth Edition
Edited by:
November 2013 | 424 pages | CQ Press
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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.
 
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.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1

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