About HS Civics, Economics and US Government.

[HSKLNG]

Do these courses need to be done with updated 2000 something versions of textbooks or any old course would do?

Do these undergo a lot of changes that require new versions of the material?

Trying to find out if what I have right now will work for 2-3 years down the road or I should plan to go shopping when the time comes.

Which curr. or textbook is the best for these, to your knowledge? Can you share your experience?

Thanks in advance.:)

[Blue Hen]

Do these courses need to be done with updated 2000 something versions of textbooks or any old course would do?

Do these undergo a lot of changes that require new versions of the material?

Trying to find out if what I have right now will work for 2-3 years down the road or I should plan to go shopping when the time comes.

Which curr. or textbook is the best for these, to your knowledge? Can you share your experience?

Thanks in advance.:)

Can't post my experience but I was coming here to post a similar question. I'm putting together my DS' Am Gov't course for next year and was wondering what folks have used. I have the books listed in WTM's Great Books list but was wondering if there were others that I should add? Also, does anyone have a spline they can recommend, or one to avoid?

Thanks,
Carole

[Samuel]

It would be useful to know what level of student this is aimed at, and what your goals are. Do you want a basic overview, or will this be foundation for a student with a lot of interest in the topic?

Re: is it important to have the last couple of chapters, often academic work is at its weakest when discussing the very recent past, i.e., the Bush admin, and this material could be safely omitted or replaced with material from the news. However, it is important that you don't use a book from 1970 to explain how American government works. I would say that you use safely use say the 2002 book instead of the 2007 one, but I would be weary of using a book which talks about the new presidency of Jimmy Carter as a spine--the discourse of American politics is now quite different.