A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works

by Nick Capodice, Hannah McCarthy, Tom Toro (Illustrator)

Overview

From Nick Capodice & Hannah McCarthy, the hosts of New Hampshire Public Radio’s Civics 101, and New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, A User's Guide to Democracy is a lively crash course in everything you should know about how the US government works.

Do you know what the Secretary of Defense does all day? Are you sure you know the difference between the House and the Senate? Have you been pretending you know what Federalism is for the last 20 years? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. The American government and its processes can be dizzyingly complex and obscure.

Until now.

Within this book are the keys to knowing what you’re talking about when you argue politics with the uncle you only see at Thanksgiving. It’s the book that sits on your desk for quick reference when the nightly news boggles your mind. This approachable and informative guide gives you the lowdown on everything from the three branches of government, to what you can actually do to make your vote count, to how our founding documents affect our daily lives. Now is the time to finally understand who does what, how they do it, and the best way to get them to listen to you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250751843
Publisher:	Celadon Books
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	23,131
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Hannah McCarthy is the co-host of Civics 101 from New Hampshire Public Radio. She came to New Hampshire by way of Brooklyn where she worked as a radio producer and writer. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Nick Capodice is the co-host of Civics 101. Before coming to NHPR, Nick worked in the Education Department at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where he wrote and led tours, trained educators, and helped design digital exhibits. He also led beer history and tasting tours for Urban Oyster in Brooklyn.

Tom Toro is a cartoonist for The New Yorker and a fiction writer. He is the author/illustrator of How to Potty Train Your Porcupine (Little, Brown & Company, 2020) and Tiny Hands (Dock Street Press, 2017). Tom lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, kid, and cat. Visit her website to learn more!

Table of Contents

Introduction

THE POWERS THAT BE

Chapter 1 The Legislative Branch

Chapter 2 The Executive Branch

Chapter 3 The Judicial Branch

STATES OF THE UNION

Chapter 4 Federalism

Chapter 5 Local Government

A GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE

Chapter 6 Elections and How They Work

Chapter 7 The Electoral College

Chapter 8 Political Parties

Chapter 9 Voting

THE DOCUMENTS

Chapter 10 The Declaration of Independence

Chapter 11 The Constitution

Chapter 12 The Bill of Rights

Chapter 13 The Amendments

THE ROBES

Chapter 14 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know

Chapter 15 Anticanon: Four Bad Supreme Court Decisions

A USER’S GUIDE

Chapter 16 How to Communicate With Your Legislators

Chapter 17 How to Lobby for What You Believe In

Chapter 18 How to Write A Bill

Chapter 19 How to Stage A Peaceful Protest

Chapter 20 How to Run for Office

APPENDIX

Pop Quiz!

Hail to the Chief: Presidential Fun Facts

The Constitution of The United States of America

Editorial Reviews

"An informative and appealing civics lesson for first-time voters and old hands alike."

—Publisher's Weekly

"An easily digestible, illustrated guidebook to the agencies and institutions that make up the federal government... Just the thing for students of civics—which, these days, should include the entire polity."

—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-08-18
An easily digestible, illustrated guidebook to the agencies and institutions that make up the federal government.

Fans of the old Schoolhouse Rock! song “I’m Just a Bill” (“and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill”) will appreciate the straightforward approach that Civics 101 podcast co-hosts Capodice and McCarthy bring to the job of describing “how America works.” At the top of their discussion is the doctrine that each of the three branches of government is coequal, enshrining a system of checks and balances that emerged from James Madison’s Federalist essay urging that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” If that system is more observed in the breach than the act these days, it’s because the legislature has not asserted itself sufficiently. That said, the authors write, “the House can be a wild and crazy place,” subject to political movements like the tea party that shake things up periodically, while the Senate is less exuberant and more aloof, its members protected by six-year terms that were put in place, one supposes, to keep them above the fray. The Senate, write Capodice and McCarthy, was “created for debate,” with Senators able to talk for as long as they wish about any given bill—“or any other matter.” Both sides of Congress are inefficient, but that’s a feature and not a bug, meant to keep laws from spilling out of the Capitol dome too haphazardly. There are scarcely any qualifications for becoming president, either, apart from age and citizenship. The authors try for nonpartisanship, but it’s clear enough that they’re unimpressed with the current occupant of the White House: “There are a whole lotta firsts in the Trump administration,” they write, “but here’s the one we’re going with: He is the first president since Polk to not have a pet.”

Just the thing for students of civics—which, these days, should include the entire polity.

Kirkus Reviews