| America the Unusual |  | Author: John W. Kingdon
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
Buy New: $209.75
as of 9/9/2010 03:22 CDT details
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New (1) Used (9) from $20.44
Seller: any_book
Rating:  4 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 128
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 031221734X
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.20973
EAN: 9780312217341
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Product Description
This book explores the uniqueness of the American system of government and how it acquired its distinctiveness. John Kingdon argues that America is fundamentally different from other industrialized countries and surveys diverse perspectives on American development in an effort to explain why America is so distinct. He then assesses what does and does not work in the American political system, arguing for a tempering of American doctrines and a return to pragmatism.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Book March 1, 2009
Mark Chustz (Louisiana)
1 out of 3 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.
a good required reading January 4, 2002
Neel Aroon (Lexington, KY United States)
2 out of 5 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.
 Poorly Written September 27, 2006
Insane Reader (USA)
3 out of 4 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.
Good facts, but opinions open to debate. April 22, 1999
10 out of 21 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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