This series of scholarly chapters explores the unpleasant realities of modern politics - and American politics in particular - by examining how self- interest, war, violence, deception and institutional failure continue to characterize the political landscape.

Author Benjamin Ginsberg argues that the political world in which we like to think we live - the world of civic engagement, representative government and principled political discourse - is fleeting and fragile, resting uneasily upon the foundation of a harsh and dark reality.

Making a fundamental contribution to our understandings of politics, this book is an important read for students and scholars of American Politics and Government.