Civic Minded

How do student loans work? What do sanctions do? Where does federal spending go, and who decides on the budget?

Author and established journalist Jeff Fleischer digs into these and other relevant civics topics to explain the history behind different processes and programs, what they look like today, and why it’s important to understand them.

Through engaging, well-researched text and related sidebars, this book will help you understand and join many ongoing political conversations in the US, from spending to citizenship to international relations and more.

Junior Library Guild Selection

"Blending an encyclopedic scope with charismatic prose, Civic Minded is an essential handbook for understanding America's government programs."—Foreword Reviews

"This even-handed book provides the reader an easy-to comprehend text supported by robust, thorough back matter. A strong choice for public and school libraries any time, but particularly during an election year."—Booklist

"Clear and stripped of partisan hyperbole; every American can benefit from this book."—Kirkus Reviews

Jeff Fleischer is a Chicago-based author, editor, and journalist. He is the author of A Hot Mess: How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Our World (Zest Books, 2021), Votes of Confidence: A Young Person's Guide to American Elections (Zest Books, 2020 and 2016), Rockin' the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries (Zest Books, 2015) and The Latest Craze: A Short History of Mass Hysterias (Fall River Press, 2011). His fiction has appeared in more than seventy publications including The Chicago Tribune's Printers Row Journal, Shenandoah, The Saturday Evening Post, and So It Goes by the Kurt Vonnegut Library and Museum. He has a master's in magazine journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor's in both journalism and history from Indiana University.

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