Faultlines : Debating the Issues in American Politics

This new issue-debate reader encourages critical thinking by adopting a point/counterpoint approach. Each chapter presents opposing perspectives on contemporary political issues such as the USA PATRIOT Act, affirmative action in higher education, the president's role in creating foreign policy, ballot initiatives, tax cuts, and nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq.

David T. Canon is professor and department chair of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His teaching and research interests focus on American political institutions, especially Congress, and racial representation. He is the author of Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts: Political Amateurs in the United States Congress; Race, Redistricting, and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts (winner of the Richard F. Fenno Prize); The Dysfunctional Congress? (with Kenneth Mayer); and various articles and book chapters. He served a term as the Congress editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly. He is an AP consultant and has taught in the University of Wisconsin AP Summer Institute for U.S. Government and Politics since 1997. Professor Canon is the recipient of a University of Wisconsin Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award.