Political Science: A Brief History [Versión Kindle]

This whole series of "Charles Rivers Editors" books represents the latest innovation in "content farming," where some amateurs cobble together 2,500 word papers on topics they know absolutely nothing about, slap glossy covers on them, and then try to sell the product to unwary buyers. I downloaded the sample and found a number of gross errors in the first three pages.

A case in point can be found in two consecutive sentences on the second page. The author(s) claim that Plato believed in "benevolent dictatorship." That's a modern term of abuse for one's political enemies, not a technical term in political science that actually describes Plato's political philosophy. (In other words, "benevolent dictatorship" is the sort of thing you hear one party claiming the other party intends to institute when they get in power.)

Next the author(s) claim Plato lived in a "self-representative democracy." "Self-representative" isn't a technical term in political science either; at best it's an awkward attempt at turning the noun "self-representation" (what you do when you forgo a lawyer at your trial) into an adjective. Put another way, the word is meaningless verbiage in this context, and you won't find it in any other introduction to political science.

Presumably the author(s) meant to say "direct democracy," which means Athenians citizens didn't elect representatives to their legislative body; they showed up and voted for laws and policies in person (i.e., directly). But anyone with a modicum of knowledge about political science and ancient Athens knows that this is the proper term.

All in all, this is high school paper that would likely earn a D minus, so save your time and money.

The text in this book is the same as the text in 'Political Science 101: The Textvook'. The difference between the books is that this 'Political Science: A Brief History' has nine pictures in it and 'Political Science 101: The textvook' has no pictures. (There is also a differance in price at the time I write this, but this may change.)

Both books take about half an hour to read and give an introduction to political science. The books have chapters on the history of political science, the role of other sciences in political science (like philosophy and maths), international realations and more. It is a basic introduction that gives you the headlines, but lacks in depth. A relatively easy read that does include information about several important political scientists, so you can use it as a starting point to find other books on this subject.

I got this booklet as a freebie, and I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

This book is gibberish. An unfocused essay on what the writer, or writers believe to be the "science" of politics. This book gives undue emphasis on polling data, and more or less states a politician's job is to follow the prevailing societal winds. What's lacking here is depth, and more importantly accurate facts. As series of statements and assertions maketh not a book on politics.