Government by the People: Brief Edition

The brief version of the bestseller in the field for many years and the leader in creating the Politically Active Classroom (PAC), Government By the People brings students the keen insights of four prize-winning political scientists. Acclaimed for its superb writing style, pedagogical support, and comprehensive and balanced treatment of the American political system, the text has been thoroughly revised, redesigned, and updated to address the diverse and changing nature of American politics and to meet the needs of American Government classes today. A complete multimedia package: Companion Website, free CD-ROM, WebCT―rounds out the learning package. Get into the PAC!

How do you get your students intellectually engaged in politics? 

Designed to model the perspectives and methods of political scientists, built on the latest research, the features in Government by the People help students develop a balanced, but critical perspective of the phenomenon of our political culture.

NEW! Government's Greatest Endeavors. Illustrating the government in a positive light, this narrative-rich and data-rich feature examines the intentional and unintentional consequences of government programs design to solve big problems such as poverty among the elderly, discrimination, and nuclear arms control.

NEW! Agents of Change.Featuring younger Americans who have changed their communities, country, and world through social action. Agents of Change demonstrates to students that they have a stake in our political culture and can even effect change.

History Makers. Reinforcing the importance of being an active participant in-and contributor to-political change by profiling influential political figures, some of historical importance as well as some contemporary figures, People and Politics features active people representing divergent parties, ideologies, and agendas-but sharing the common trait of engagement in the political process. Many focus on the positive contributions of America's public servants and ordinary citizens, including Joan Blades and Wes Boyd of MoveOn, Stephen Moore and the Club for Growth, Blaise Hazelwood, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, and Steve Rosenthal of America Coming Together.

The Changing Face of American Politics. Exemplifying the ever-increasing level of diversity in the American political landscape, including how race and gender are changing the way the American government works, these unique boxes are designed to reflect the concerns and experiences of ethnic and minority groups in American politics..

How Other Nations Govern. Data-rich, filled with groundbreaking maps, How Other Countries Govern helps students learn more about foreign political structures and processes, and how these similar and/or differing approaches can affect-and be affected by-American politics. 

How do you incorporate media and other student resources into your course?

Government by the People leads the industry in providing creative, innovative electronic solutions for your classroom. Whether in the form of tools that enable more effective communication or by providing dynamic presentation of content via the World Wide Web, Prentice Hall continues to anticipate your needs.

NEW! MyPoliSciLab, also available in Blackboard and WebCT platforms. MyPoliSciLab is an easy-to-use online resource that allows instructors to assess student progress and adapt course material to meet the specific needs of the class. MyPoliSciLab enables students to diagnose their progress by completing an online self-assessment test. Based on the results of this test, each student is provided with a customized study plan, including a variety of tools to help them fully master the material. MyPoliSciLab then reports the self-assessment results to the instructor, as individual student grades as well as an aggregate report of class progress. Based on these reports, the instructor can adapt course material to suit the needs of individual students or the class as a whole. Additionally, MyPoliSciLab offers the major resources for Government by the People–including Faculty Resource PowerPoint presentations, Make It Real online resources, and ABC News video clips–in one convenient location.

URL: www.prenhall.com/mypoliscilab

ABC News Video DVDs  Fully integrated into Government by the People. Students are raised in a media-rich world, but until now their American Government books have not provided the means, the methods or vocabulary for understanding the information about government that nightly fills their television screens. Featuring the latest news clips from ABC News programs and a rich set of critical thinking questions, ABC News will get your students excited and informed about our political culture.

NEW! Make it Real 2.0 is a comprehensive website that contains dynamic simulations developed by Prentice Hall exclusively for American Government. In addition to simulations, Make it Real also contains activities on civic participation, interactive timelines and maps, quizzes, primary source documents, Census data, and exercises in visual literacy. Students will use information such as real election results, real demographics, maps and voting score cards. Self-study quizzes are available for the student to take to make sure they understand the concepts used in completing the simulations and other activities.

URL: www.prenhall.com/makeitreal2

Government by the People Transparencies. This set of over 150 full-color transparency acetates reproduces illustrations, charts, and maps from the text.

Practice Tests. Each chapter includes a list of Learning Outcomes for the chapter, practice tests with questions in multiple-choice and fill-in formats designed to reinforce information in the text and help students develop a greater understanding of American government and politics, and the answers to all questions.

How do you prepare interesting classroom lectures and challenging tests and assignments?

Government by the People features a robust line of instructor preparation and presentation resources that anticipate your needs as an instructor.

Faculty Resource CD-ROM with Power Point Presentations. For classroom use, this CD-ROM contains the following PowerPoint presentations for each chapter in Government by the People: a Lecture Presentation that covers all of the material in the chapter; a Special Topics Presentation that expands on one of the more important topics discussed in each chapter; and a Graphics Presentation that collects all of the graphs, charts, illustrations, and photos that appear in the chapter. To allow for optimum organization, we have also included the Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Item File in MS Word format to allow you to customize resources depending on how you organize your course.  The Faculty Resource CD-ROM allows you maximum flexibility as you prepare your lectures and manage your class.

Test Item File. The Test Item File for Government by the People presents the highest level of quality and accuracy, with over 2000 questions and a variety of question types with cross-references to pages in the text where the answers are discussed. These questions are designed to test both factual and conceptual knowledge and reflect varying degrees of difficulty, ranging from easy to moderate to challenging. There are also 2 Quick Quizzes for each chapter that allow you to assess students’ understanding of the material throughout the course. Each chapter in the Test Item File opens with a Total Assessment Guide that allows you to see the distribution of questions in the chapter. This feature breaks the questions down according to question format (i.e., multiple choice, essay, etc.) as well as question type (i.e., factual or conceptual), enabling you to plan each exam easily and accurately. An electronic version is also included on the Faculty Resource CD-ROM.

Prentice Hall TestGen. This computerized test bank contains the questions from the Test Item File. The program allows for full editing of these questions and the addition of instructor-generated questions. Suitable for Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

Instructor’s Resource Manual. For each chapter, this booklet offers an overview, a list of learning objectives for the chapter, lecture outline, classroom discussion topics, classroom exercises, and a bibliography of books and articles on the topics discussed in the chapter. An electronic version is also included on the Faculty Resource CD-ROM.

NEW! Government's Greatest Endeavors. Illustrating the government in a positive light, this narrative-rich and data-rich feature examines the intentional and unintentional consequences of government programs design to solve big problems such as poverty among the elderly, discrimination, and nuclear arms control.

NEW! Agents of Change.Featuring younger Americans who have changed their communities, country, and world through social action. Agents of Change demonstrates to students that they have a stake in our political culture and can even effect change.

NEW! MyPoliSciLab, available in Blackboard and WebCT platforms. MyPoliSciLab is an easy-to-use online resource that allows instructors to assess student progress and adapt course material to meet the specific needs of the class. MyPoliSciLab enables students to diagnose their progress by completing an online self-assessment test. Based on the results of this test, each student is provided with a customized study plan, including a variety of tools to help them fully master the material. MyPoliSciLab then reports the self-assessment results to the instructor, as individual student grades as well as an aggregate report of class progress. Based on these reports, the instructor can adapt course material to suit the needs of individual students or the class as a whole. Additionally, MyPoliSciLab offers the major resources for Government by the People—including Faculty Resource PowerPoint presentations, Make It Real online resources, and ABC News video clips—in one convenient location.

URL: www.prenhall.com/mypoliscilab

NEW! Make it Real 2.0 is a comprehensive website that contains dynamic simulations developed by Prentice Hall exclusively for American Government. In addition to simulations, Make it Real also contains activities on civic participation, interactive timelines and maps, quizzes, primary source documents, Census data, and exercises in visual literacy. Students will use information such as real election results, real demographics, maps and voting score cards. Self-study quizzes are available for the student to take to make sure they understand the concepts used in completing the simulations and other activities.

URL: www.prenhall.com/makeitreal2