Reviews for Political Communication in America: Third Edition

The average rating for Political Communication in America: Third Edition based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-01-22 00:00:00 Brian Claeys This was a book I had to read for school but it was not a pleasant surprise. I found this book to have some interesting political and historical facts and stories in it, but overall I found it incredibly dry and boring. It was hard to push myself through this book and I just found the experience of reading it very unpleasant. This book is not that long but every time I thought about picking it up and reading it I internally groaned and dreaded the experience. I have heard Howard Fineman speak on TV many times and I absolutely think he is a much better speaker than he is a writer. There were some interesting parts of this book but I think you could find a book that covers most of the same material that is more interesting to read. Definitely not one of my favorite books.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-05-03 00:00:00 Jonathan Mulgrew As much as I like Fineman on MSNBC shows like Countdown and Hardball, I just couldn't get into this book. He presents both sides of the arguments well, and I agree with his book's premise that our country's founding talent of civil political discourse is long gone. Now all we do is shout at each other instead of debate in the classic Lincoln/Douglas way. However, this book needed a better editor. Fineman could have cut about 50-100 pages out of this book by sticking to the purpose of the book and the topics of each chapter. I understand the concept of background stories, but they felt more like history lessons. A chapter on presidential power does not need a 2-page summary of the 1980 election-it would have been better served by talking about the power of the executive branch under Presidents Carter and Reagan.