America the Unusual

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By: John W. Kingdon
(4 customer reviews)
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EDITORIAL REVIEW

Kingdon explores how the American polity is different from that of other countries - particularly other Western democracies - examining just how this uniqueness came about. It invites both introductory and advanced students to appreciate the roots and limits of American exceptionalism, and to recognize the profound importance of current debates over the government's role in our everyday lives.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Publisher: Worth Publishers. Inc (Bedford/St. Martins)
Pub. Date: 30th November 1998
Catalog: Book
Media: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 111
Ean: 9780312189716
Isbn: 0312189710

ABOUT THIS BOOK

USER REVIEWS

Great Book
~ Written on Mar 1, 2009. 1 out of 3 users found this review helpful.

This book does a great job of examining the odd quirks of this country as it works to rectify public opinion and public policy. John in a very thoughtful writer.

Poorly Written
~ Written on Sep 27, 2006. 2 out of 3 users found this review helpful.

While the subject matter of this book is intriguing, it is poorly written. Kingdon continues to make the same points over and over and over and over. His sentence phrasing and choice of diction lull you to sleep. This man could have benefitted from taking an intro level English course, or an editor who cared. Once I got through the book, though, I did take his thoughts into consideration. But he could have condensed his thoughts into a few pages.

a good required reading
~ Written on Jan 4, 2002. 2 out of 5 users found this review helpful.

I actually had to read America the Unusual for my intro to american goverment class and I actually enjoyed the book a great deal because it dealt with issues that need to be looked to understand why our goverment the why it is and how our goverment is different from that of Western Europe even though many american came from those countries and some of the same thinkers influenced both American and Western European goverments.

Good facts, but opinions open to debate.
~ Written on Apr 22, 1999. 10 out of 21 users found this review helpful.

I disagreed with many of the authors opinions in this book, but I will give him credit. He does at least give a fleeting glance at his opponents and dissenters.

As far as I can tell with my limited knowledge,his facts are accurate. While I do not agree with many of his points, I did find the book well laid out organizationally.

He was very clear in his stating of facts and his opinions. He also separated the two very well. He clearly noted when he was stating facts and when he was stating an opinion. I did notice one rather unsubstantiated generalization in the party unity portion of his argument, but I found very few examples of strongly biased generalizations.

The author seems to suggest a rather unrealistic goal of a compromise between the European system of democracy and the American government style. This idea would require too many changes in a society that generally resists change. This a strong book factually, though some of the opinions are open to debate.

I do like his idea of setting out exactly why America is so unusual. This would be a good book for students to read to gain a bit of knowledge of America as compared to European and other industrialized nations. Though I personally did not care for the book because of the opinions expressed, I do believe that it was worthwhile to read if only to pick up the idiosyncracies of the American style of government.

Peace, Mike

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