On The Forward Edge is an American Government text-novel. It teaches the basic principles of American Government through the medium of a novelistic account of young people working for change at the time of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Clark Schooler, a recent college graduate, begins his newspaper career by reporting on the sit-in demonstrations of the early civil rights movement. He covers the efforts of college students to use direct-action and protests to force the racial integration of a movie theater in Baltimore. His editor then sends him to the all-white University of Mississippi to witness and write about the campus riot that takes place when a black student, James Meredith, attempts to attend the University. After covering the 1963 March on Washington, Clark is given a journalistic internship in the Capitol Hill office of United States Senator Thomas H. Kuchel of California. Senator Kuchel is one of the floor leaders for the civil rights bill that will eventually be enacted as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In his capacity as a Senate aide, Clark observes first hand the inner workings of Congress, particularly the way in which senators supporting racial segregation are using the Senate filibuster to "talk to death" the civil rights bill. Clark works with Senator Kuchel to find 67 votes to "cloture" the civil rights bill and thereby end the filibuster. Clark meets Bonnie Kanecton, a young lawyer working for Senator Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois. Bonnie shows Clark how, through carefully crafted legislative compromises, Senator Dirksen is able to fashion a final version of the bill capable of winning 67 votes for cloture. But the battle is not over until the Supreme Court, in the late fall of 1964, upholds the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This book takes the reader through the intricate process by which the United States chooses its President. All aspects of the 1996 presidential election are covered from the first primary election votes cast in New Hampshire to the fun and excitement at the two national conventions to the presidential candidate debates to President Bill Clinton's final victory over Senator Bob Dole on Election Day. Particular attention is paid to the campaign finance scandals which dominated the last three weeks of the 1996 presidential campaign. The book then offers a series of realistic and achievable reforms designed to make presidential elections less manipulative and more fair to voters."

Survey after survey reveals that many Coloradans believe that the U.S. government is too big, too wasteful, and too intrusive. Yet Colorado is arguably one of the most federally subsidized states in the union, with forests, national parks, military bases, and research laboratories benefiting from the federal government's largesse. A concise history of Colorado's constitution and central political institutions, Colorado Politics and Policy offers a probing analysis of the state's political cultures. It shows how the state, in many ways a template of the deeply contrary politics of the nation, puts political power into the hands of an ever-more-polarized electorate increasingly inclined to put the concerns of government to the test of the citizen-initiative. Colorado Politics and Policy is the result of broad-gauged and sophisticated research which includes author interviews with citizens and officials across the state, three specially commissioned statewide public opinion surveys, and extensive interviews with governors, legislators, judges, lobbyists, interest group leaders, and leading political analysts. This fresh and engaging interpretation is essential reading for those who want to understand Colorado's major election trends, chief public policy and budget challenges, and this distinctively purple state's unique political history.