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What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues | 
 enlarge | Author: Jessamyn Conrad
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $10.25
You Save: $6.70 (40%)
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 45733
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 1559708832
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.60973
EAN: 9781559708838
ASIN: 1559708832
Publication Date: August 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Gift Quality Book - No Remainder Marks
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Product Description
Its a very exciting time in American politics. Voter turnout in primaries and caucuses across the nation have shattered old records. More than ever, in this election year people are paying attention to the issues. But in a world of sound bites and deliberate misinformation and a political scene that is literally colored by a partisan divide--blue vs. red--how does the average educated American find a reliable source that's free of political spin?What You Should Know About Politics . . . But Don't breaks it all down, issue by issue, explaining who stands for what, and why--whether it's the economy, the war in Iraq, health care, oil and renewable energy sources, or climate change. If you're a Democrat, a Republican, or somewhere in between, it's the perfect book to brush up on a single topic or read through to get a deeper understanding of the often-mucky world of American politics. Polls have shown that interest in the presidential campaign traditionally peaks 3-6 weeks before the elections. But this is also a book that transcends the season. It's truly for anyone who wants to know more about the issues, which are perennial issues that will continue to affect our everyday lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Helpful Guide October 23, 2008
Sally (Pembroke Pines, FL)
This handy book is laid out so that it's easy to follow. Topics are divided by chapters: Elections, The Economy, Foreign Policy, The Military, Health Care, Energy, The Environment, Civil Liberties, Culture Wars, Socioeconomic Policy, Homeland Security, Education, and Trade. Each chapter begins with a bulleted list of major points, next comes the background to current debates, and then current debates follow with a more in-depth discussion. Both sides of each issue are laid out. Time and again the reader sees "opponents" and "advocates" as each side is presented in a no-nonsense style of writing. Results of polls and majority of opinions are incorporated where applicable and overall trends are examined.
This is a useful guide to be referred to often. I recommend it.
An excellent guide for people who know nothing about politics and still vote September 14, 2008
C. G. La Ferle (Midwest, USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is a first-rate primer for the majority of Americans who know little about politics and policy making, or tend to get their information from less than reputable sources. Far too many people take dangerous, rash, and uneducated stands on important issues, or they make rash judgments (based on hearsay or blogs) about political candidates. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've encountered a person who says s/he won't vote for Obama "because he's a Muslim", for instance, or that Sarah Pallin is a neo-Nazi who believes Alaska should be an independent nation.
I often ask these people where they get their "misinformation" -- and to explain exactly what they've been reading and studying to arrive at their conclusions on important political issues or procedures. They blush, stammer, and cannot answer the question. This book is for them -- and anyone else who slept through American Government 101. Yes, it IS a primer. But I have yet to meet many average Americans who are even ready for the advanced course in politics.
Very effectively summarizes the issues - a great book! September 9, 2008
John K (Cleveland)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've often wondered why republicans and democrats take opposing sides on such a wide range of issues. Why do republicans believe in low taxes and small government while at the same time believing that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and that preemptive war is the best defense against terrorism? Why do democrats favor more strict gun control, a woman's right to choose and a balanced budget over deficit spending?
Ms. Conrad's book goes a long way toward explaining the historical background on the issues that frame the current political debates and why the parties take the positions that they do. She outlines the spectrum of ideologies that comprise the positions and points out that a party may take an opposite position in a given election cycle simply for the sake of political contrast.
Of course she doesn't have time to delve into details on many of these issues, but if you are confused by the rhetoric of todays debates and would like to be a more informed voter, this book is for you.
 It's shallow, but it intends to be shallow September 9, 2008
Stephen R. Laniel (Cambridge, MA USA)
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
I honestly couldn't decide, while reading this book, whether I hated it. Which isn't necessarily a check against it; I suspect Conrad knew that she'd elicit this opinion from most of her readers.
There are two big reasons why most readers will feel that way:
1. It's a standard-size book that purports to cover most every important issue in American political life. Every issue will necessarily receive less coverage than it deserves.
2. When Conrad says "Politics," what she really means is "the beliefs that most Americans hold." She wants to introduce you to all the beliefs, mistaken or otherwise, that you'll encounter around the water cooler. She tries to dispense with the facially bad arguments, but people on any side of any issue will wish that she tried harder.
Is the problem that I'm just too opinionated? Do I selfishly wish that Conrad would support my side more than the other guy's? That's the crux of my uncertainty over this book. At some level I think I am the problem. Another problem, though, is Conrad is not an expert on health care, or foreign policy, or economics, or the environment, or any of the other issues that she covers in "What You Should Know". She is "pursuing her doctorate in art history at Columbia University." She knows how to read newspapers with a critical eye, and I have to tip my hat to her on that; critical reading is not something that many people can do.
Why, then, should we read Conrad rather than any other intelligent person who digests newspapers? For that matter, why shouldn't Conrad have published a book of newspaper clippings, which intelligent readers could then dig into? So far as I can tell, the answer lies in the author blurb on the jacket cover, right above the bit about her art-history work: Conrad is "the daughter of the senior Democratic senator from North Dakota and the niece of the Republican U.S. Secretary of Agriculture." Being from the West, she's supposed to be libertarian and maverick. Being so intimately connected to U.S. politics, she's supposed to give us a behind-the-scenes view of who's sleeping with whom, who's bought whom out, and so forth. The book doesn't deliver on that promise, so it's not even worth addressing.
What we're left with, then, is a precis of American newspapers, written by a smart person. Since her goal is to help us all understand our fellow-Americans' political beliefs, Conrad is loath to write off most anyone -- though she seems to have no problem judging one belief or another as kooky. For instance: "A few far-left liberals are opposed to rendition in every instance; most believe there are times when it is acceptable to breach the laws of a given nation in order to apprehend a criminal, especiallt if it has a shaky rule of law or is run by an unfriendly dictator." (p. 184)
This is what drives me up a wall about Conrad's book. Like the newspapers that form her sources, Conrad accepts the common framing of issues, and thinks it's perfectly okay to label one side -- typically the left -- lunatic. So 20 pages later, she writes
"I'm going to use scientific terms like `embryo' and `fetus' when referring to early stages in human development. Be aware, however, that some opponents of legal abortion find these terms offensive. They call a fetus an unborn child and say they support the rights of the unborn." (Bolding in original.)
Did you see her call them "a few far-right conservatives"? I did not. She maintains an indifferent posture, which masks an implicitly conservative ideology.
Throughout this book, Conrad needs to keep asking more questions. If someone believes that the U.S. has a right to capture people from unfriendly regimes, we are implicitly granting that right to foreign governments. This is the same argument used against torture: if we do it, we encourage them to do it. Conrad can label rendition's opponents extremists because she lives in the most powerful nation on earth: if we can snatch people up from Namibia, who cares if the Namibians try to do the same to us? Conrad doesn't put it this way because newspapers don't put it this way.
What You Should Know About Politics is filled with this kind of pretend objectivity, and a refusal to ask more fundamental questions about the U.S. political process or the role of the media in controlling that process. If you're not already familiar with the issues that Americans discuss, then I'd recommend this book warily. If you already understand something of the world around you, then What You Should Know About Politics is just a recipe for continued frustration.
Everything You Need to Know to More Than Hold Your Own in a Conversation About Politics August 25, 2008
Matthew Adam (New York, NY USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book will allow a political novice to go toe-to-toe at a dinner party with long-time subscribers to The New York Times and The Economist. It'll also enable readers to parse the most challenging reporting about the 2008 elections and the 111th Congress.
At the same time, I can say from experience that the book will be worthwhile reading for amateur policy wonks. The author mixes exhaustive academic research with the sorts of insights that you can only get from political insiders. Plus, the writing is first-rate. I found that the book was a great way to fill gaps in my knowledge base; I wound up re-reading chapters on topics where I knew relatively little and skipping some chapters where I was already well-informed.
I must say that I'm a little entertained that the only negative review of this book on Amazon complains that the author tends to endorse liberal positions--since I felt frustrated that the author often framed key debates but didn't analyze who had the stronger argument. For example, the author doesn't adopt a view with respect to whether the 2001 Bush tax cuts increased or decreased tax revenues. I suspect the fact that the author is being criticized for making both too many, and too few, judgments means that she's striking a good balance. In any event, the book makes it a lot easier to see through misleading statements by politicians of all stripes.
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