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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2020
Eighteen American government textbooks were published in 1979 (seven new books and 11 new editions of previously published books). In 1980, another 16 were published (nine new books and seven new editions.) In 1981, the year after a presidential election, came 20 more (six new books and 14 new editions). Three of the 1981 books (new editions) were published in multiple versions (some combination of basic, national, national- state-local), so there were a total of 25 versions of American government textbooks published in 1981. Examining all the texts for course consideration is an extremely time consuming process. The purpose of this paper is to simplify the process by briefly reviewing the American government textbooks and readers published in 1980 and 1981. (Books throughout are indicated by the name of the first author; a complete list is given in the Appendix.)
Ed Note: Tables on Contents of 1980 and 1981 American Government Textbooks are available upon request from APSA.
1 Regarding 1979 and earlier textbooks, see William C. Green, “American Government Texts: How Marketed? How Adopted?,” News for Teachers of Political Science (Summer, 1980), No. 26, based on work he and I did examining earlier textbooks, and our paper from the 1979 Southern Political Science Association meetings. Though care has been taken to include all texts published for each year, there may be omissions. For example, Woll and Binstock, America's Political System , 3rd edition (Random House, 1979) was omitted from the Green list for 1979; it is included in the number indicated here for 1979.
2 It seems to me that running glossaries in margins at the first appearance of a term, with good indexes, would be more immediately useful, and used by, students than end-of-book glossaries, though almost all the glossaries are found at the end of the book, thereby allowing narrower margins.
3 Other texts may include this material in study guides, though study guides were only briefly and unsystematically examined in preparing this. I did not want the review for this paper to be the only task I completed this spring.
4 This date evidently represented some “slippage“ of intended schedules. Moreover, extensive advance publicity regarding the content of the new edition of Cummings was sent to potential adoptors by the publisher.
5 College instructors in Indiana can have the Poynter Center at Indiana University assemble readers for ordering through bookstores, though this service, because of copyright restrictions, may not be available outside Indiana.
6 I had hoped to complete this review for an earlier issue of NEWS so that instructors could have the material during the spring when fall course decisions are made. The delay in receipt of some of the 1981 books prevented this. One possibly useful feature not mentioned earlier is the student evaluation form—with (free) business reply mailing—bound as the last page of Harris's America's Democracy. This could facilitate systematic feedback from students as well as from faculty members.