People, power and politics: an introductory reader

The most challenging problem facing college teachers of political science in recent years has been the task of planning, and finding suitable readings for, the introductory course. Among the growing number of books that have addressed themselves to this problem, none, we believe, has achieved the completeness, balance, and liveliness found in People, Power, and Politics: An Introductory Reader, by Professors Lyman Jay Gould and E. William Steele. Based upon the authors' many years of experience with the introductory political science offering at the University of Vermont, this is, in effect, a text and a reader within the covers of a single volume.

The readings selected by Professors Gould and Steele have been organ ized in terms of six major topics: The Study of Politics, The Physical Roots of Political Power, The Ideological Roots of Political Power, The Formalization of Political Power, The Mobilizers of Political Power, and The Transfer of Political Power. Each section is prefaced by a fucid intro ductory essay summarizing the descriptive and analytical materials to be presented and relating them to the larger framework and principal foci of political science as a whole.

In the scope and depth of its coverage, the representativeness of its sources, and the coherence of its analytical treatment this volume is a unique contribution. Certain to be welcomed by teachers and students alike for its combination of high interest and quality, Peeple, Power and Politics: An Introductory Reader is not merely an adjunct to the reading 1st for the introductory course in political science but has been designed to stand alone and on its own academic feet.