We the People: An Introduction to American Politics: Texas Edition

Politics is relevant.

The best text for showing students that politics is relevant to their lives and that political participation matters―especially in the digital age. New coauthor Caroline Tolbert brings expertise in political behavior to deep revisions of key chapters, and new Digital Citizens boxes highlight the role of new media in politics. The nine chapters on Texas politics have been thoroughly updated and include several new Who Are Texans? infographics to engage visually oriented students.

Benjamin Ginsberg is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science, Director of the Washington Center for the Study of American Government, and Chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author or coauthor of 20 books including Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, Politics by Other Means, The Consequences of Consent, and The Captive Public. Before joining the Hopkins faculty in 1992, Ginsberg was Professor of Government at Cornell University. His most recent book is The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. Ginsberg’s published research focuses on political development, presidential politics, participation, and money in politics.

Theodore J. Lowi was John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University. He was elected president of the American Political Science Association in 1990 and was cited as the political scientist who made the most significant contribution to the field during the decade of the 1970s. Among his numerous books are The End of Liberalism and The Pursuit of Justice, on which he collaborated with Robert F. Kennedy.

Margaret Weir is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She has written widely on social policy in Europe and the United States. She is the author of Politics and Jobs: The Boundaries of Employment Policy in the United States and coauthor (with Ira Katznelson) of Schooling for All: Class, Race, and the Decline of the Democratic Ideal. Weir has also edited (with Ann Shola Orloff and Theda Skocpol) The Politics of Social Policy in the United States.

Caroline J. Tolbert is Distinguished University Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, where she regularly teaches American government and social media and politics. She was named a 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellow for her research on voting and elections. She is coauthor of Accessible Elections: How the States Can Help Americans Vote and Choosing the Future: Technology and Opportunity in Communities, both with Oxford University Press. Accessible Elections examines absentee/mail voting, early voting, and same-day registration. She is coauthor of three other books on technology and politics: Digital Cities, Digital Citizenship, and Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide. Digital Citizenship was ranked one of 20 best-selling titles in the social sciences by the American Library Association. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and other nonprofit and technology partners. She has served on the Council for the American Political Science Association. Her work is driven by an interest in strengthening American democracy and inclusive participation in politics, the economy, and society.

Edward J. Harpham is professor of political science at the University of Texas at Dallas. An award-winning teacher, Harpham was the inaugural director and dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College from 1998 to 2021. He teaches courses in political theory, Texas and American government, and public policy. His research focuses on the role that economic ideas play in modern political thought and their impact upon modern state institutions. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles in peer-reviewed journals.