Week Four: “An Introduction to American Government and Politics,” Professor Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard University
We all knew that it was only a matter of time until we found ourselves in Cambridge and at the school there which is not MIT
Professor Thomas Patterson
This week we are at Harvard to learn about Professor Thomas Patterson’s 4-part course, “An introduction to American Government and Politics.” Professor Patterson is a distinguished scholar with a special commitment to introducing citizens to our system of government; his We the People (now in its 11th edition) has become the standard American Government text at many universities.
Professor Patterson’s full course consists of 4, 4-week modules. While paid registration is required for “the full course experience” including access to all readings and a certificate of completion, the individual 4-week components can be audited for free when taken one-by-one. Those modules are: 1) American Government: Constitutional Foundations; 2) US Political Institutions: Congress, Presidency, Courts, and Bureaucracy; 3) Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media: and 4) US Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies.
Thomas E. Patterson is the Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is author of the books: Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism, The Vanishing Voter, Out of Order, Mass Media Election, and a general American government text, We the People, now in its 11th edition. His articles have appeared in Political Communication, Journal of Communication, and other academic journals, as well as in the popular press. His research has been funded by the Ford, Markle, Smith-Richardson, Pew, Knight, Carnegie, and National Science foundations. Professor Patterson received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1971.
Rather than a full first lecture, this time we have a brief video introduction to the whole course recorded by Professor Patterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3oBPdY_bi0.
If Professor Patterson’s approach to studying American politics and government resonates with you, information on how to participate more formally in any or all parts of his course is available by clicking on the button below. Once there, click on the four course modules individually for more information about the free audit option.