Updated in a new 8th edition, The Craft of Political Research immerses readers not only in how political scientists work but also in how ideas produce research questions and guide the selection of research methods. Emphasizing the internal logic of research methods and the collaborative nature of the research process, this slender text explores the design behind interesting questions, problems in measurement and analysis, and key statistical methods.

Brief and inexpensive to include in any course, The Craft of Political Researcher’s elegant explanations inspire a big picture understanding of how political scientists explain political reality and encourage students to create their own inventive, original, and bold research work.

“The Craft of Political Research is just what one hopes for in an undergraduate methods course. It is more theoretically engaged than most such texts, and the conceptual discussion is non sectarian. Marx and Duverger make an appearance; so do Mancur Olson and Anthony Downs, so do Philip Converse and Robert Putnam. Students will learn that ideas matter, not the statistical software, and they will see that theoretical narrowness is the antithesis of good science.”–from Christopher H. Achen’s Foreword