Civic Minded
What Everyone Should Know about the US Government
A commonsense guide to what the United States government actually does, Jeff Fleischer’s Civic Minded demystifies subjects at the heart of contemporary political discourse and creates a groundwork of facts for everyday citizens.
Covering the differences between Medicare and Medicaid, showing what federal interest rates are and how they are set, and addressing the history of public broadcasting among a bevy of other subjects, the book singles out crucial, often misrepresented aspects of American governance and provides concise, unbiased overviews of how programs work, why they were created, how they are criticized, and what proposed changes to them would entail. Some chapters explore recent programs like the Affordable Care Act, while others delve into century-old-plus agencies like the IRS, in existence since at least the Civil War but codified in its modern form in 1953. The disparate topics, from the postal service to consulates and embassies, are united by being both central to American life and obscured by a prevalence of misinformation.
Conceived from the experience of conducting dozens of question-and-answer sessions with American students, Civic Minded places a premium on addressing practical concerns. It provides the facts and statistics necessary to make concrete amorphous distinctions like progressive and regressive taxation without passing judgment on the merits of particular programs or ideas. In addition, its straightforward, conversational prose welcomes all levels of knowledge, while its inter-chapter thought bubbles address more nuanced aspects of subjects, providing a taste of the complexity at the heart of each topic. A chapter on capital gains taxes, for instance, includes a brief aside on the way the system adapted to the emergence of cryptocurrency.
Blending an encyclopedic scope with charismatic prose, Civic Minded is an essential handbook for understanding America’s government programs.
Reviewed by
Willem Marx
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
