American Politics, Then & Now: And Other Essays by James Q. Wilson (PDF)

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James Q. Wilson is one of America’s preeminent public policy scholars. For decades, he has analyzed the changing political and cultural landscape with clarity and honesty, bringing his wisdom to bear on all facets of American government and society. This is a collection of fifteen of Wilson’s most insightful essays-drawing on thirty years of his observations on religion, crime, the media, terrorism and extremism, and the old-fashioned notion of “character.” Readers of every political persuasion will come away from this volume with a new understanding of how American politics and culture have evolved over the last half-century. These essays are not “the grumpy words of a conservative who can’t be reconciled to the realities of contemporary American life,” Wilson writes. Rather, they are straight talk from a painstaking empiricist and consummate social scientist who believes in American exceptionalism. American Politics, Then & Now is a compelling portrait of a beloved nation.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly The controversial neoconservative political scientist holds forth on social science and public policy in this scattershot collection of essays culled from three decades’ worth of his writings in Commentary, the Public Interest, and other journals. The collection touches on Wilson’s longstanding interests: the importance of character in thinking about crime and education, the centrality of religion in national life, and the role of heredity in shaping behavior (in one recent essay he argues that our genes are a major factor in determining our political attitudes.) Wilson is at his best when he argues from close readings of historical evidence and social science data, which often yield trenchant insights—on the growth and solidification of federal programs, the unimportance of school spending and class size to educational outcomes compared with intangibles like academic expectations and discipline. But sometimes, as in his grousing about Obamacare and his dismissal of European-style social democracy on no firmer grounds than its alleged incompatibility with American exceptionalism, he simply repeats conservative preconceptions. Always good at provoking intellectual brawls, Wilson doesn’t always succeed at settling them. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review All of us who write about politics today know this: To be a political commentator in James Q. Wilson’s era is to know how Mel Torme must have felt being a singer in Frank Sinatra’s era. We are all competing for the silver medal. Wilson has won the gold. These essays show why. — George F. WillFor over forty years, James Q. Wilson has been America’s leading public intellectual―and perhaps the world’s. Touching on almost every important aspect of our politics, public policy, national character, morality, and culture, these masterful essays draw together his own encyclopaedic command of the social facts, the imperishable political wisdom of Aristotle, and the felicitous wit and concision of Dr. Johnson. They will reward thoughtful readers generations after today’s pompous pundits are long forgotten. — Peter H. Schuck, Yale UniversityThe publication of these essays―including the classic ‘The Rediscovery of Character’―is an event to be celebrated. Whether you agree or disagree with his interpretation of American politics, James Q. Wilson never fails to illuminate and provoke. — William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, The Brookings InstitutionWilson is at his best when he argues from close readings of historical evidence and social science data, which often yield trenchant insights―on the growth and solidification of federal programs, the unimportance of school spending and class size to educational outcomes compared with intangibles like academic expectations and discipline. ― Publishers Weekly, April 2010Wilson’s latest book collects 15 essays….They are written for a general audience, not in the sense of being dumbed-down, but of addressing questions of concern to the educated public in a manner free from academic jargon and pretense. Those not familiar with Wilson’s work will discover what it means to bring social-science evidence to bear on important contemporary problems….Wilson is a master at making complex issues understandable….In a world filled with so many smart-alec political analysts, sober teachers like James Q. Wilson are in exceedingly short supply. ― Claremont Review of Books About the Author James Q. Wilson lectures at Pepperdine University and Boston College. Wilson received a lifetime achievement award from the American Political Science Association and the Bradley Prize from the Bradley Foundation. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Wilson is the chairman of the council of Academic Advisers of the American Enterprise Institute. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Lets face it! Books written about politics generally tend to be dry and boring. At least I find that to be true.I found that James Q. Wilson was able to do better than some others. Below I cut and pasted from Wikipedia.James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American academic, political scientist, and an authority on public administration. A Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University and a senior fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College, he was a co-author of the 1982 article introducing the broken windows theory.As far as Stars go–maybe 3 stars.

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⭐The author, an acclaimed conservative political scientist at Harvard, compiles a number of essays in this book. The vast majority of the essays cover (i) changes in U.S. domestic politics since the 1960s and (ii) the interplay between religion and politics. The last few pages cover the interplay between biology and politics.Many of the essays are superficial and not of the caliber I would expect from an accomplished political scientist. This is especially true when he touches on foreign policy– his praise for the Bush administration’s foreign policy rings especially hollow.

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