What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues
Conrad’s father is the senior Democratic senator of North Dakota, and her uncle is the Republican U.S. agricultural secretary and former governor of North Dakota. Still, she manages to be nonpartisan in this very helpful guide to American politics. She highlights the foibles of both parties when explaining campaign financing, special interest groups, and voting irregularities. Conrad gives readers the essentials on elections, the economy, foreign policy, the military, civil liberties, and other issues. She details all the elements that go into a presidential election, from primaries and caucuses to pledged delegates and superdelegates, and why more Americans need to pay attention to the mechanics of elections before things go wrong. She begins with a brief background of current debates on issues from abortion and the right to die (under the topic “Culture Wars”) to highway privatization and FEMA (under “Homeland Security”).This is an essential resource for Americans of whatever political persuasion, including independents, libertarians, progressives, and populists, all of which she defines and explains. --Vanessa Bush