American Government
This book is very comprehensive. The only suggestion that I would make is to include a little bit more political psychology, especially in the chapters on public opinion and the media. In particular, I would like to see some more/more direct discussion of motivated reasoning.
The book's content is accurate. I also don't perceive any bias.
The text is very up to date, using examples from as recently as 2016. Swapping out these examples for newer ones in the future should not be too onerous.
The book is clear and accessible. It avoids jargon and does a very good job clearly defining terms. I also very much like the end of the chapter contents. The section summaries will help students distill important ideas and the glossary/test questions will be a useful study aid.
The text is consistent in its use of terminology. I read the "theme" as being about civic engagement, and the theme appears consistently throughout the text.
The text would be easily divisible by chapter. I think it would be harder to pull apart sections of the book independently and rearrange them. For example, the term latent opinion comes up in the introductory chapter. The terms is not introduced again in the public opinion chapter. The book seems to presume knowledge of the concept based on preceding chapters.
Generally, I don't think my critique of the modularity poses a problem for the use of this text. For the most part, you could move around chapters if not sections. Given the nature of an American politics course, I don't frequently see my colleagues, nor do I, order concepts much differently than they are ordered in this book.
The organization and flow of the book is very good. I suspect students will read the chapters as rather lengthy. However, the chapter lengths seem fairly typical for this type of text.
The text interface is good. My only critique here is substantial amounts of white space following some images which may distract the reader.
The grammar of the book is fine.
I do not think this book is at all culturally insensitive. I also think the book does an exceptional job bringing in minorities not traditionally covered in American politics texts (Asian Americans, Native Americans, etc.) I also think the book does a good job bringing in gender concerns throughout the text. For example, I appreciate the discussion of women as political candidates in the chapter on elections.
The next time I teach American politics, I will definitely use this text. It covers necessary topics clearly and comprehensively. It also does a great job bringing in marginalized or minority voices. And, as an instructor, I particularly appreciate the supplemental resources provided for teachers and the study aides in each chapter for students.