American Political Thought

President Obama′s hope of bringing a new kind of politics to Washington has fallen on hard times, with hardening party lines reflecting ideological polarization. Utilizing the organizing theme of partisan gridlock in the seventh edition′s introductory materials and author headnotes, editor Michael Cummings reminds readers that partisanship has long been a recurring problem for Americans, dating back to the deadly conflicts among the Iroquois nations, to the debates of the constitutional convention, and to the near destruction of the young republic during the Civil War. American Political Thought challenges students to examine their own political thinking in light of insights from past thinkers and in terms of the challenges they face as citizens of the twenty-first century. Along with time-tested readings, about one-third of this edition′s authors are new, including a number of thinkers from earlier periods, as well as more recent selections from liberal, conservative, and more unconventional thinkers.


About the Author
Cummings, Michael S.: -

Michael S. Cummings is professor of political science and President's Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado Denver. A graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, he received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford. He has published many articles and two co-edited books on communal and utopian studies, as well as a 1999 co-edited book, The Transformation of U.S. Unions: Voices, Visions, and Strategies from the Grassroots. His 2001 book, Beyond Political Correctness: Social Transformation in the United States, was named the "Outstanding Book in Transformational and Ecological Politics" by the American Political Science Association's organized section in Ecological and Transformational Politics. Since the 1980s, he has been a non-partisan public advocate for youth rights and empowerment.