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Public Policy: A Concise Introduction, 1st Edition, by Sara R Rinfret, Denise Scheberle, and Michelle C Pautz on Amazon
With my formal classroom learning about public policy having been back in the twentieth century, I decided to get up to date with this college textbook overview of the near-countless topics, agencies, elected/appointed officials and other actors involved in governing, administrating, changing, and influencing humanity and the environment—primarily in the USA. Just as with any textbook for an introductory course, it covers areas a student probably knows something about and ones they may never have heard of.
Emphases on the environment and on immigration are the major differences in this book from when I was in school. The trio of university-level instructor contributors do well explaining interaction among various public entities coupled with the frequent role of corporations and not-for-profits. Chapters ail include objectives, case studies, charts and other graphics, glossary/vocabulary terms, discussion questions, and resource suggestions, all of which can be helpful to a student, instructor, or an independent reader like myself. End of book features a glossary with brief definitions of terms used in the book, chapter-by-chapter print and digital resources, and an index.
Public Policy: A Concise Introduction will stay on my bookshelf because in many cases looking it up in a book is easier than scrolling through the internet, and because nothing feels better than an open book in my hands. My only concern is the comprehensive breadth and density along with new vocabulary words to learn, new concepts to unpack, might overwhelm a student who was new to the study of public policy.
• My Amazon Review:
comprehensive overview