Outstanding Academic Titles 2024: Political Science

Enjoy this week's Outstanding Academic Titles list snippet: Five titles pertaining to political science

Posted on May 29, 2025 in Outstanding Academic Titles

Enjoy these five selections from the Choice Reviews 2024 Outstanding Academic Titles list. This week, we highlight Outstanding Academic Titles focused on political science. A hearty congratulations to the winning authors, editors, and publishers!

1. A fabulous failure: Bill Clinton and American capitalism
Lichtenstein, Nelson. by Nelson Lichtenstein and Judith Stein Princeton, 2023

This volume is the most comprehensive and scholarly account of the administration of President Bill Clinton focused on domestic policy that one could hope to read. Lichtenstein (Univ. of California) and the late Judith Stein (CUNY) are highly critical of the neoliberal, pro-business slant of Clinton’s advisers. Despite trumpeting progressive policies in 1993, Clinton went on to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, which regulated banks, and, also in 1996, in collusion with Republicans, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Both were products of the New Deal, backed by many Democrats. The roots of this ideological heresy, according to the authors, lay in the tendency of Clinton’s advisers to want to “manage” situations. During the struggle over health care, Clinton’s advisers overly trusted their business allies only to see them withdraw support as resistance grew. Clinton’s embrace of NAFTA also helped decimate the US manufacturing industry. The result was a political and economic program dominated by Wall Street financial interests. This was a far cry from the “economy, stupid” campaign of 1992.  View on Amazon

2. Democratic failures and the ethics of democracy
Lovett, Adam. Pennsylvania, 2024

Lovett (Australian Catholic Univ.) offers a timely, grim account of how the American political system fails to uphold fundamental democratic values. His approach is both deeply rooted in the literature and approachable, and he makes good use of thought experiments and empirical evidence to build a case. In this account, democracy is valuable because of its tendency to create the conditions for equality and self-rule. However, the American political system flounders because of institutional design, failures of popular control, and the disproportionate power wielded by people in already privileged positions. Additionally, well-documented shortcomings at the individual level, including a lack of knowledge and cognitive biases, detract from the democratic project of allowing equal citizens to engage meaningfully in self-rule. Some of the problems Lovett identifies are new, such as ideological polarization or some citizens’ embrace of authoritarianism. Others, such as deficiencies of political knowledge, are perennials that have been measured since the beginnings of the behavioral revolution.  View on Amazon

3. Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq
Leffler, Melvyn P. Oxford, 2023

One of the nation’s most esteemed scholars of US foreign policy writing about the greatest debacle in the post–Cold War era makes for an incredible book. Employing extensive interviews with all the principal players, memoirs, and exhaustive documentary research, Leffler (emer., Univ. of Virginia) overturns many myths about George W. Bush. The author is quite generous and favorable to Bush, demonstrating that despite other commentators’ claims, the president was cautious, discerning, and reluctant to go to war. Still, Leffler ultimately concludes that Bush bears responsibility for the dysfunctional advising structure and his refusal to provide the necessary leadership over warring hostile personages and offices. The most egregious offender was the pompous Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who grabbed power, employed it ineffectively, and imposed his narrow perspective on the war and postwar operations. However, many others who engaged in intra-agency rivalries were also at fault. This is a classic study of how not to do policymaking, and future leaders can gain immeasurable value from attention to this failed process. View on Amazon

4. The politics of innocence: how wrongful convictions shape public opinion
by Robert J. Norris, William D. Hicks, and Kevin J. Mullinix New York University, 2023

In The Politics of Innocence, the authors provide the particulars of life as an activist—a word this reviewer uses purposefully—working to exonerate the wrongly convicted. The story this book tells describes life in a free society in which decisions have consequences and notions of justice are paramount. Each of the book’s five chapters dives into the past, present, and future of innocence-related policies, outlining their history, law, and philosophy. The chapters set the stage for the reader to see the relationship between changing policies and public opinion. This is where activism comes in quite subtly. The authors clearly recognize that the power of innocence-related policies rests in various places across the criminal justice system, including with the people. This work is inspiring and motivational, and is recommended to all readers interested in work on wrongful convictions in general or the value of public opinion in a healthy democracy. View on Amazon.

5. Big money unleashed: the campaign to deregulate election spending
Southworth, Ann. Chicago, 2024

Big Money Unleashed builds on Southworth’s previous work on legal strategies in campaign finance policy. Significant legal and archival research provides the foundation for rich, focused interviews Southworth (law, Univ. of California) conducts with more than 50 attorneys involved in moving the debate about campaign finance regulation to First Amendment freedom of speech concerns and away from the corruption of the political process or the problem that unfettered political spending poses for citizens wishing to have equal access to the marketplace of ideas. Southworth integrates the work of the conservative legal movement (called “challengers”) with that of liberals (referred to as “reformers”) who spearheaded the campaign finance reform legislation of the 1970s and 2002. Unlikely bedfellows are found on both sides of the debate, yet the conservatives were successful in reframing the issue through media and legal precedents and helping to create a Supreme Court stacked with their sympathizers. The last chapter thoughtfully speculates on what the next steps might be for both sides. The book is very well written and meticulously documented. View on Amazon.

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