The Politics of Power: A Critical Introduction to American Government

THE POLITICS OF POWER provides a lively, comprehensive, critical perspective of the American political system by highlighting how political conflicts, institutions, and processes are influenced by deep inequalities generated by the country's political economy. Building on the coverage of all of the major topics typical of an American Government course the critical analysis in this text is based on the theme that American democracy is limited by fundamental inequalities in power and economic resources. Respected for its critical theme, THE POLITICS OF POWER also strives to be direct without being simplistic, engaging without being flippant, and critical without being cynical.

Ira Katznelson, an Americanist whose work has straddled comparative politics and political theory as well a political and social history, is professor of political science at Columbia University. After receiving his Ph.D. at Cambridge University in 1969, Katznelson taught at Columbia until 1974 before moving to the University of Chicago where he was chair of the department from 1979-1982 and the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, where he was Dean from 1983-1989. He returned to Columbia in the Fall of 1994. Professor Katznelson's books include LIBERALISM'S CROOKED CIRCLE (Princeton University Press, 1996), SHAPED BY WAR AND TRADE: INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES ON AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT (co-edited with Martin Shefter, Princeton University Press, 2002), POLITICAL SCIENCE: THE STATE OF THE DISCIPLINE (Norton Publishers for the American Political Science Association, 2002), and DESOLATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT: POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE AFTER TOTAL WAR, TOTALITARIANISM, AND THE HOLOCAUST (Columbia University Press, 2003). BLACK MEN, WHITE CITIES (Oxford University Press, 1973), CITY TRENCHES: URBAN POLITICS AND THE PATTERNING OF CLASS IN THE UNITED STATES (Pantheon Books, 1981); SCHOOLING FOR ALL (co-authored with Margaret Weir, Basic Books, 1985); WORKING CLASS FORMATION (co-edited with Pierre Birnbaum, Princeton University Press, 1995). He has served as President of the Section on Politics and History of the American Political Science Association (1992-93) and President of the Social Science History Association (1997-1998), co-edits the "Princeton Series in American Politics", and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation. Research Interests: American politics, comparative politics, political theory, urban politics, European studies, race relations, class formation, ethnicity and regligion, education, urban geography, identities and interests, social movements, political parties.

Mark Kesselman is senior editor of the International Political Science Review and professor emeritus of political science at Columbia University. His research focuses on the political economy of French and European politics. His publications include The Ambiguous Consensus (1967), The French Workers Movement (1984), The Politics of Globalization: A Reader (2012), and The Politics of Power (2013). His articles have appeared in The American Political Science Review, World Politics, and Comparative Politics.

Alan Draper is professor of political science at St. Lawrence University where his major fields of research and teaching are Western Europe and American politics. He has written extensively on labor and politics, and the civil rights movements. His books include A ROPE OF SAND: THE AFL-CIO COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL EDUCATION, 1955-67, (1989) and A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS: LABOR AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH, 1955-68, (1994), which was recognized as an "outstanding book on the subject of human rights in North America" by the Gustavus Myers Center. In 1996, Dr. Draper received the Calvin Keene award from St. Lawrence University, which is given to "an outstanding faculty member in recognition of high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern."