Empirical Political Analysis: Research Methods in Political Science

I bought this book for a research methods class that I am taking for my Masters in Public Administration program. When the class started, the professor had us switch to another textbook, but I read this book because I had already paid for it and I knew that it would help me with the class. The material was easy to work with and was presented in a logical sequence.

I'm a Junior at a large university, and this book is required for my Research Methods class. I've put off taking this class until now, since I'm not very math-oriented. This book explains research ideas in a very simple way, and each chapter has lots of examples from politics. My professor sometimes also has us read the sample articles that the chapters list. This is extra work, but seeing how real researchers use a method helps me understand it. By the way, there is math in the statistics section, but it's not really that bad. If you're not a natural whiz at research, this is the book for you.

The book is clearly written, and I am using it this semester for an undergraduate class I teach. I am not a big fan of textbooks in general, as I rarely use them myself, and when I do, it is mostly for concrete and breif reference purposes. This book is very accessible. I especially liked the chapter on focus groups. The chapter on content analysis is also good, because it conveys very clearly the problems that one faces with this particular method, but at the same time the chapter is not mathematically deep. I find that most of my studnets find this book easy to use. As a book on statistics, it is not very powerful, and the presentation of even the basic methods could use better organization. But overall, this is still a useful text.

I attend a master at political sciences and have been looking for a book which has all the steps for experimental method in political sciences. When I got a copy of Manheim's book I couldnt believe the good it is to let one learn easily with examples. This book safe my life on the more important subject.