Over 275 entries

This is the first reference work to provide detailed, in-depth coverage of all aspects of American politics. Top scholars have written entries that surpass all previous reference material on the subject and provide scholars and students with ready access to sophisticated, comprehensive material. Long entries form the core of the book, covering such topics as climate change, terrorism, welfare policies, nuclear proliferation, voting behavior, and think tanks. Each of these entries includes high-level scrutiny of the literature, history, and future of the topic.

The Companion also includes a number of entries from The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (Joel Krieger, 2001), revised as necessary to bring coverage of such topics as foreign aid and nuclear weapons up to date. In the current context of political gridlock, international tension, economic underperformance and social division, students of American politics need to focus on more than the inner workings of their own political institutions, important as that focus is. They also need to approach their work with as wide an understanding of our contemporary international and domestic economic, social, and cultural conditions as it is possible for them quickly and easily to acquire. The Oxford Companion to American Politics has been designed precisely to meet the full range of those needs.