Comparing Students’ Political Engagement and Knowledge in Introductory American Politics Courses When a Nontraditional Textbook is Used

Abstract

For more than a decade, scholars have been concerned with declining levels of civic and political engagement, particularly among young Americans. Putnam’s seminal work, Bowling Alone, sounded the alarm on a long term downward trend in civic and political engagement in America (Putnam 2000). The issues raised in Putnam’s work spurred an interest on the part of political scientists in understanding, and in turn, addressing this decline. Several higher education initiatives, including the Carnegie Political Engagement Project, have been instituted to address the decline in political and civic engagement.