Approaching Democracy, Portfolio Edition - Softcover

Berman, Larry A; Murphy, Bruce Allen

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9780136140085: Approaching Democracy, Portfolio Edition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0136140084 ISBN 13: 9780136140085

Publisher: Pearson, 2007

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For undergraduate courses in introductory American Government.

Approaching Democracy is the American Government book with a clear and compelling central theme, designed to elevate student interest.

Approaching Democracy addresses the evolving nature of the American experiment in democratic government. It teaches students the theory and the basics of American political science, the political history of this nation, and provides the critical thinking skills needed to analyze these evolving relationships.

The title and theme for this book come from Vaclav Havel’s address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on February 1, 1990, wherein Havel noted that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of people from Eastern Europe were involved in an historically irreversible process: beginning their quest for freedom and democracy. And while the United Stated of America provided the model for these newly freed peoples, it was, in Havel’s mind, evolving towards democracy, not a fully established democracy “As long as people are people,” Havel explained, “democracy, in the full sense of the word, will always be no more than an ideal. In this sense, you too are merely approaching democracy. But you have one great advantage: you have been approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more than two hundred years, and your journey toward the horizon has never been disrupted by a totalitarian system.”

Larry Berman and Bruce Allen Murphy, long-time teachers of the introductory American Political science course in both large and small public and private universities, set out to write a book that offers a clear theme ― a theme that is just as relevant, if not more so today than when it was first presented ― in a highly readable, easy-to-understand format. Both authors enjoy teaching and are actively engaged in new methods of engaging students and empowering them to participate in political discourse.

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About the Author:

Larry Berman is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, and since 1999 has served as the founding Director of the Universi of California, Washington Center, http://www.ucdc.edu.

Berman is the author or co-author of ten books and numerous articles. His research and publications have focused on the presidency, foreign policy, and the war in Vietnam. The most recent book, No Peace, No Honor has been featured on C-Span's Book TV, the History Channel's Secrets of War, reviewed prominently in The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Sacramento Bee, and Washington Times. In addition, he has appeared on a number of broadcasts, including Bill Moyers' PBS series, The Public Mind, and David McCullough's American Experience series, Vietnam: A Television History.

Berman has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Science Foundation, as well as several research grants from presidential libraries. He has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and a scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Center in Bellagio, Italy.

Berman has received the 1996 Outstanding Mentor of Women in Political Science Award from the Women's Caucus for Political Science. He received the 1994 Bernath Lecture Prize, given annually by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations to a scholar whose work has most contributed to our understanding of foreign relations.

His class on the American presidency is cited in Lisa Birnbach's New and Improved College Guide as one of the most recommended classes for undergraduates at UC Davis. Berman has often conducted a series of live interactive television programs from Washington with his undergraduate classes at UC Davis on the American presidency and American government. The programs are available from PBS Adult Learning.

In addition to his work in political science, Berman is an authority on integrating and reengineering liberal arts education with technology. He regularly presents seminars and workshops on the subject to educators across the United States and has lectured in Australia, China, Germany Israel, France, the Netherlands, and Vietnam on American politics, foreign policy, and multi-media technology in the classroom.

Bruce Allen Murphy is the Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights in the Department of Government and Law at Lafayette College. He is a nationally recognized judicial biographer and scholar on the American Supreme Court, civil rights and liberties, judicial behavior, and judicial biography.

Murphy is the author of many publications, including his newest judicial biography Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas, America's Most Controversial Supreme Court Justice, which has been selected by the Book-of-the-Month and History book clubs. He also wrote Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice, which was nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His best-selling The Brandeis-Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices, which received the American Bar Association's Certificate of Merit, was listed among The New York Times' Best Books for 1983 and was serialized by The Washington Post. In addition, he edited Portraits of American Politics: A Reader.

Murphy has received numerous teaching awards for his courses in American politics, civil rights and liberties, and Constitutional law. He has been a finalist in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education's national Professor of the Year competition and was cited as a Best Professor in Lisa Birnbach's New and Improved College Guide. He is listed in both Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.

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