American Government is a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

, now in its seventeenth edition, by the noted public administration scholar

James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...

and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

John J. DiIulio, Jr. DiIulio is a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

who served as the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in 2001. Wilson, a Republican, chaired and participated in numerous

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

task forces and commissions, and was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

by president George W. Bush in 2003. Wilson died in March 2012. The book examines and analyzes the

government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, covering every aspect of government from

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s to interest groups. The current edition, ''American Government: Institutions and Policies'' also lists co-authors Meena Bose and Matthew Levendusky. It is published by Cengage Learning. This book is currently used in both college and Advanced Placement high school courses across the United States. The book is roughly 780 pages and includes the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

U.S. Bill of Rights The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rais ...

, outcomes of various elections throughout U.S. history, and famous court cases. It is accompanied by a companion website that features practice test questions and detailed explanations on each chapter.

Controversy

The textbook became an item of national news coverage in April 2008. Matthew LaClair, a

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

high school senior, expressed concerns to the

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Center for Inquiry regarding what he felt was conservative

bias Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group ...

in the textbook and inaccuracies about its coverage of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. He wrote an opinion piece in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. The group issued a critical report on the textbook. The group's criticism of the coverage on climate was buttressed by a few scientists and then additional criticism from legal scholars, who claimed the book presented a skewed view of

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

. The publisher,

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, announced that it would review the book, as did the College Board, which oversees college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high schools. Wilson responded to the complaint in an editorial, arguing both that the text is not unduly biased and falsely claiming that dispute with regard to

is considerable.

References

External links

Official Companion Website
* Center for Inquiry'
Textbook Accuracy Report
(PDF) 2012 non-fiction books Books about politics of the United States Books by James Q. Wilson Political textbooks American non-fiction books {{edu-book-stub