The Essentials of Political Analysis - Softcover

In a remarkably brief and accessible book, Philip Pollock brings students to a relatively high level of analytic skill and sophistication. He does this with clear exposition, engaging substantive examples, the ability to develop the intuition behind the concepts and techniques he presents, and a commitment to educating students about the fundamentals of inference and multivariate analysis. This is an essential book for undergraduate quantitative methods courses --Walter Stone, University of California

Pollock's book works well in an introductory course on quantitative analysis offered to political science majors. I have used it for several years. My students find it accessible, and I appreciate the examples he provides from the political science literature . --Francis Neely, San Francisco State University

Pollock's book works well in an introductory course on quantitative analysis offered to political science majors. I have used it for several years. My students find it accessible, and I appreciate the examples he provides from the political science literature --Francis Neely, San Francisco State University

Student anxiety runs high given the seemingly intimidating nature of the methods course. Philip Pollock's first order of business is to get math-phobic students comfortable learning and using the tools of political analysis. Brief and accessible, his text walks students through the basics―measuring concepts, formulating and testing hypotheses, describing variables―and uses key terms, chapter-opening objectives, more than eighty tables and figures, and class-tested chapter exercises to promote skill application and aid student review.

Fully up-to-date with new exercises and data, this third edition includes a new chapter devoted to measuring and describing variables, as well as fresh coverage of multiple regression and research design.