The required text for this class is American Government, James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr. (11th Edition, 2008).

Do not purchase a book with a similar title but called "The Essentials." It is missing at least two chapters that we will be covering.

Likewise, do not purchase the 12th Edition.

I realize - because I have taken many college classes in my own lifetime - that, in some instances, you pay a lot of money for a textbook and, when you take the class, you wind up wondering why you ever did so. Sometimes, depending upon your personal goals, it may even seem rational to go without buying the text until after the first test, just to see how well you can do without it. I understand all of this. I really do. But you should know that the text for this course is "required" in the sense that you will need it to have any chance at all of passing the course. The weekly assignments are directly from the text. If you do not have it, you cannot do them. The test questions are also directly based on the homework questions. As it also turns out, it is well-written and a good reference book. Who knows, you may actually want to keep it!