"Presidential Campaigns: Documents Decoded" illuminates both the high stakes of a presidential campaign and the gaffes, controversies, and excesses that often influence the outcome. With a view to enabling readers to develop skills essential to political literacy, the book examines crisis points in modern presidential elections from the early 1950s through the late 2000s.

Chronologically organized, the study focuses on key events pertinent to each election. It provides an original account of the event, such as a debate transcript or news report, as well as a discussion detailing how the...

This book provides far more than an effective overview of the history, current status, and future of capital punishment in America; it supplies excerpts of the words of the justices themselves to make these judicial opinions readily accessible and understandable to general audiences. As a result, readers can see what the justices had to say for themselves regarding more than 30 important cases involving the death penalty--without relying on any intermediary interpretations of their statements. After a brief historical summary of the debate over capital punishment and the arguments favoring...

What constitutes "women's rights" depends on whom you ask--or who is in political office at the time. Understandably, women's rights have changed across time as perceptions of women and their roles have changed. What remains consistent regardless of the historic era is that rights assumed by men often must be specifically granted to women. This book presents an overview of women's rights that also addresses specific policy decisions. Within each policy entry, the author explains the factors that can influence a particular policy decision, such as the current American political culture,...

"The Abolitionist Movement: Documents Decoded" collects primary sources pertaining to various aspects of the American anti-slavery movement in the 18th and 19th centuries and presents these firsthand sources alongside accessibly written, expert commentary in a visually stimulating format. Making use of primary source documents that include pamphlets, articles, speeches, slave narratives, and court decisions, the book models how scholars interpret primary sources and shows readers how to critically evaluate the key documents that chronicle this major American movement.

The work begins...

This accessibly written work provides a wide range of primary documents, offering American history students and teachers alike a handy reference volume that examines all important aspects of the Great Depression and New Deal--a core curriculum topic. By modeling how an expert scholar interacts with primary sources, the book enables readers to pick apart and critically evaluate firsthand the key documents chronicling this major American movement.

The book leads with an introductory essay that outlines the scope of the volume, explains how the primary documents were selected, and...

What are the objectives of today's Democratic Party, and what historic events have guided its evolution from a decidedly different ideological starting point more than 200 years ago? "The Democratic Party: Documents Decoded" supplies a thorough historical examination of the Democratic Party from its distant origins in George Washington's administration to the two-term administration of Barack Obama. Told through key documents and speeches, this history comes alive in the words and thoughts of those who built, sustained, and transformed the Democratic Party. No other book uses documents in...

An ideal research tool for advanced high school students in government and history classes as well as undergraduate students enrolled in political science and history courses, "The Republican Party: Documents Decoded" presents documents, transcripts of speeches, photographs, political cartoons, and campaign materials to define the status of the Republican Party in the early 21st century.

Focusing on its leaders, key principles, organization, and the basis of its political support, the book provides readers with the knowledge and understanding to answer the key questions: For what does...

There is no better way to understand the 1960s than to read key speeches and texts from the decade, experiencing firsthand writings that capture a signature sense of passion and conviction. That is exactly the approach taken by this book as it analyzes major protest movements of the era, including the Vietnam War protests, the Civil Rights Movement, Women's Lib, the hippie movement, and the nascent GLBQT movement.

Organized by movement, the work presents speeches, testimonies, and other important documents side-by-side with accessibly written, expert commentary. The documents and the...

The latest addition to ABC-CLIO's popular Documents Decoded series, John R. Vile's "Founding Documents of America" presents historic documents key to the foundations of our nation's government accompanied by introductions that supply background information and analysis that highlights key provisions and provide historical context. The coverage extends beyond the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to provide contextual understanding of a wide range of other documents, such as private diary entries and political polemics, that will further readers'...

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Establishment Clause, meanwhile, declares a position of neutrality not only between differing religions, but between religious and nonreligious beliefs. The terms of the Free Exercise Clause, however, provide special protections to religious belief and practice. Thus the provisions of the two clauses can clash. In fact, differing political and legal interpretations of these clauses have resulted in...