International Politics on the World Stage

Rating:
Summary: Very broad ... but very biased!
Review: Good book for an introduction to International Relations couse in terms of topics covered - but the author's bias is clearly leaning toward that of an idealist/globalist. Make sure you get a balanced perspective from the other side of the coin before taking this text as gospel.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible!
Review: I took POLS 132 (International Relations) and my professor was John Rourke, the author of the book. He knows his stuff (he writes a new edition every year), but his lectures were horrible! Half of the students in lecture would never go, and the students who did attend class only went because he took attendence. He cannot teach. He rambles on and on in lecture and is frequently off-topic. This is reflected in his writing. Having the textbook as our only source was hard enough, not to mention having him as the professor for our class! Just save your time and money--stay away from this book. (And if you're a UConn student, don't take his classes.)

Rating:
Summary: An Awful Text
Review: One of my classmates for our Poli Sci 100 Intro to World Politics class put it best, "...it's clearly biased and I don't learn anything from it." He was right, find another book or a class to take, but don't read this text. If this is your textbook hopefully your teacher can lecture well, because this textbook teaches nothing at all.