A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture - Softcover

Van Belle, Douglas A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1506368654 ISBN 13: 9781506368658

Publisher: CQ Press, 2017

Synopsis

A Novel Approach to Politics turns conventional textbook wisdom on its head by using pop culture references to illustrate key concepts and cover recent political events. This is a textbook you will want to read. Adopters of previous editions from schools all over the country are thanking author Douglas A. Van Belle for some of their best student evaluations to date.

With this Fifth Edition, Douglas A. Van Belle brings the book fully up to date with recent events such as Trump’s executive orders on immigration, the 2016 elections in the US, current policy debates including recent court decisions that may affect gerrymandering, international happenings such as Brexit, and other assorted intergalactic matters. Van Belle adds a wealth of new and recent movies and books to the text, as he illustrates key concepts in political science through examples that captivate you. Employing a wide range of references from 1984 to Game of Thrones to House of Cards, students are given a solid foundation in institutions, ideology, and economics. To keep things grounded, the textbook nuts and bolts are still there to aid students, including chapter objectives, chapter summaries, bolded key terms, and discussion questions.

About this title

About the Author

Douglas A. Van Belle is a senior lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His most recent research focuses on the role of the media in the adoption of disaster risk reduction policies, but his publications range from dynamic models of rational choice in revolutionary collective actions to the critical comparison of the concept of science as applied in political science and paleontology. Other areas of research include media freedom, foreign aid, popular culture and politics, and the social dynamics of science as applied to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Review

"A Novel Approach to Politics is an easy-to-read, entertaining, basic introduction to political science that covers the key concepts, theories, and thinkers of the discipline with relatable examples and illustrations from fiction and pop culture. Van Belle’s humor sets his text apart, making learning about political science ’cool‘ and ’entertaining‘ for the nerdy and non-nerdy alike."

Author: Verónica B. Hoyo

"A Novel Approach to Politics is highly readable and engaging for students! This is a text that will draw students into topics that they previously rolled their eyes at.  Seriously, students will actually not only read the book, but also be able to personally relate to the material. In 25 years of teaching political science, I’ve never found a better textbook!"

Author: Kimberly J. H. Pace

"Who says political science has to be dull and lifeless? Van Belle’s textbook is completely distinctive from the other currently available political science textbooks― you will come for the popular culture references and stay for the humor, which both work as engaging ways to keep students’ attention. My students invariably love this book. A Novel Approach to Politics is political science as you always hoped it would be."

Author: Richard L. Pacelle, Jr.

Douglas Van Bell’s A Novel Approach to Politics is a "useful and handy textbook for...beginners" with "good examples" and "simple definitions."

Author: Nalanda Roy

"Van Belle offers us an introduction to the study of politics using popular culture and humor. While this approach is already enshrined in the numerous articles and teaching conferences in our discipline, it has yet to be reflected in any meaningful way in a textbook― with Van Belle’s text as the exception, of course!"

Author: Julie Webber

"A Novel Approach to Politics is an entertaining textbook that combines solid scholarship with references to cultural media that students will enjoy and teachers will find refreshing. Van Belle’s text is very different from traditional textbooks― it is like The Daily Show compared to CNN News. Its sarcasm and humor are unique and make students more likely to read it than traditional texts."

Author: Wendell S. Broadwell, Jr., Ph.D.

About this edition

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1506368654
• ISBN 13: 9781506368658
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 536