Public Policy: A Concise Introduction, Second Edition by Sara R. Rinfret, Denise Scheberle and Michelle C. Pautz, is a student-friendly textbook that connects responsible citizens to the world through a contemporary examination of the fundamentals of American public policy. The authors help both majors and non-majors foster their analytical skills early and then spend the rest of the semester discussing the policy issues, data, and events that matter most to them. The Second Edition has been updated to include how we can collectively use public policy to raise individuals from the margins and address inequities that exist in our system. Recent policy questions include: "How do we shape our country's health care system?", "How do we address increases in costs of tuition?", and "Did the COVID-19 pandemic positively or negatively shape our public education system?"

Through case studies, this book explores key conflicts that shape environmental policies in the United States.

Answers to environmental issues are not black and white. Debates around policy are often among those with fundamentally different values, and the way that problems and solutions are defined plays a central role in shaping how those values are translated into policy. The Environmental Case captures the real-world complexity of creating environmental policy, and this much-anticipated Fifth Edition contains fifteen carefully constructed cases. Through her analysis, Sara Rinfret continues the work of Judith Layzer and explores the background, players, contributing factors, and outcomes of each case, and gives readers insight into some of the most interesting and controversial issues in U.S. environmental policymaking.