A Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master

A Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master is a book aimed first and foremost at readers, written to engage not merely the attention of the eye, but the productive effort of the brain as well.  Unlike traditional textbooks, it is written as a dialogue between teacher and student, rather than as a monologue from authority or a catalog of bibliographic citations.  Unlike traditional textbooks, it is not a compendium of every possible fact or opinion, or a museum of knowledge.  It is instead a focused but wide-ranging discussion meant to provoke the reader to connect facts into patterns and to evaluate those results.

This is a guidebook to thinking about government, told almost as if a story.  Whether an earnest autodidact reading for enrichment, a reluctant student reading for requirement, or an independent home-schooler reading for enlightenment, this book is for you.  Not only is it geared to promote critical thinking, its focus on connecting facts and ideas (revealed in the act, rather than the word) makes it an ideal supplement to more comprehensive and less engaging texts.  Its readability and examples make it an excellent beginning or background touchstone to supplement comparative or constitutional law texts.  Honors students will appreciate the engagement in thinking and the narrative style; Advanced Placement students will appreciate the practice integrating information into a framework and marshalling evidence into an argument.

This book is a book at heart, meant to prompt growth as a student and person, not simply temporary retention of faceless facts.  It is written to help those who are teaching, not instructing, whether they teach others or themselves.  If you like books, if you like working through questions and other puzzles, and want to learn about American government, you will love this book.