The Political Junkie Handbook (The Definitive Reference Book on Politics)

Rating:
Summary: Retired in Greenwich, CT
Review: Great book, I can't put it down. I listen to the radio talk shows and regularly watch Fox News so this book helps me keep an eye on the shows' hosts. Any facts mentioned on these shows can be instantly checked in The Political Junkie Handbook for accuracy. I thought I knew a great deal about politics until I started reading this book. I feel as though I am in school again.
The lists in the back of the book are also valuable and highly entertaining. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in politics.

Rating:
Summary: A great resource!
Review: I purchased this book a few weeks ago with the expectation of brushing up on the numerous political issues that are topping the news in this year's election season, and to simply become more knowledgeable about basic facts. As it turns out, the book spends more time on my desk at work than at home where I reference it frequently for insight on issues that our marketing research firm covers for various newspapers. Overall, a great resource for anyone interested in shoring up their knowledge base, and knowing what they're talking about. Remember, a smarter America is a better America!

Rating:
Summary: Great idea - needs editing & presentation work!
Review: I think it's great that someone is compiling all this data into a single source of information. As a political junky, I eat this sort of information up quickly, and am always hungry for more.

I completely agree with the reason for publishing this sort of work: most Americans are woefully out of touch with how and why thier government works. Soundbites from election-year ads, talk-radio, and Fox News are a poor substitute for facts, analysis, and true discourse.

I think if Mr. Crane updates this book in the future, he should get better help to check the numbers, facts, and quotes presented. My impression (I'm about half-way through) is that these figures were slapped together without much editing and checking of what's printed.

Don't get me wrong -- there's lots of great info here, but inaccurate facts are worse than no figures at all.

I saw several tables where columns were obviously missing (heading, but no data), numbers that were obvious mistakes, and even quotations repeated verbatim on the same page. Also, there were several presentations of data that (with a little math or spreadsheet technology) could have revealed much more valuable information. I believe most data was presented as-is from the source -- some analysis may have helped.

Finally, the two-color graphics could have been much more interesting with more colors. I realize this would add to the cost of the book, but feel it would be worth it. Many graphs and maps were extremely hard to interpret with only shades of gray. It didn't help that some maps/graphs appeared to have been scanned in and blown up until they were blurry just to fill the page.

Hopefully, Mr. Crane's next edition will incorporate some of these suggestions. The potential is there -- it just needs a bit of work to really shine.

Rating:
Summary: Great idea - needs editing & presentation work!
Review: I think it's great that someone is compiling all this data into a single source of information. As a political junky, I eat this sort of information up quickly, and am always hungry for more.

I completely agree with the reason for publishing this sort of work: most Americans are woefully out of touch with how and why thier government works. Soundbites from election-year ads, talk-radio, and Fox News are a poor substitute for facts, analysis, and true discourse.

I think if Mr. Crane updates this book in the future, he should get better help to check the numbers, facts, and quotes presented. My impression (I'm about half-way through) is that these figures were slapped together without much editing and checking of what's printed.

Don't get me wrong -- there's lots of great info here, but inaccurate facts are worse than no figures at all.

I saw several tables where columns were obviously missing (heading, but no data), numbers that were obvious mistakes, and even quotations repeated verbatim on the same page. Also, there were several presentations of data that (with a little math or spreadsheet technology) could have revealed much more valuable information. I believe most data was presented as-is from the source -- some analysis may have helped.

Finally, the two-color graphics could have been much more interesting with more colors. I realize this would add to the cost of the book, but feel it would be worth it. Many graphs and maps were extremely hard to interpret with only shades of gray. It didn't help that some maps/graphs appeared to have been scanned in and blown up until they were blurry just to fill the page.

Hopefully, Mr. Crane's next edition will incorporate some of these suggestions. The potential is there -- it just needs a bit of work to really shine.