Hamiltonia - by Kaitlin N Sidorsky & Kelly B Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Hamiltonia: A State and Local Government Simulation helps students understand real world politics at the state and local level by guiding them though creating government institutions, running for public office, and writing and debating laws and policies in the areas of state budgets, health, criminal justice, education, and environmental policy.

Review Quotes

Hamiltonia allows students to learn state politics through a comprehensive simulation that provides an interesting and informative way to understand the importance of institutional structure, while capturing the complexities and variations of politics and policies throughout the 50 states. The text is a welcome addition to any state politics course.

Hamiltonia offers a unique combination of foundational knowledge regarding the politics of U.S. States, and an engaging simulation asking students to build the fictional 51st state of Hamiltonia. The perfect blend of content knowledge and simulation will significantly stimulate the engagement that instructors desire in the classroom.

Hamiltonia engages multiple learning styles while providing an exciting opportunity to flip traditional instructor-led teaching by focusing on real-world issues. Students develop a detailed understanding of the complexities of political decision making as they take the lead in designing their own state government and addressing pressing policy issues.

Hamiltonia provides an avenue for students to learn beyond lectures and fully engage with the intricacies of state governments. A resource such as this is greatly needed for state politics.

As student assessments become more complicated due to large language models (e.g., ChatGPT), simulation-based activities can be a great way to overcome these challenges. I highly recommend Hamiltonia, which gives a step-by-step guide on how to run a semester-length simulation of state governments that is thoughtful, well-designed, and just plain fun!

In Hamiltonia, government is brought to life through creative and engaging simulations in which students craft a constitution, establish the powers of political institutions, and design policies. This book provides a comprehensive and practical approach for teaching state and local government and lessons that students will remember.

Kaitlin Sidorsky and Kelly Smith breathe life into the concepts of State and Local Government by engaging students in the experiential process of building the 51st State of the United States from the ground up. Hamiltonia: A State and Local Government Simulation is a great addition to any State and Local Government Course.

State governments make many of the most important policies that affect students' day to day lives. But teaching state politics can be hard because students often enter the classroom with little understanding of state government. Hamiltonia to the rescue! This book blends a readable account of state politics with an innovative simulation that is sure to educate and entertain undergraduates.

What makes Sidorsky and Smith's comprehensive state politics textbook Hamiltonia truly exceptional is the comprehensive simulation that asks students to directly interact with important issues in state politics. Student interest, engagement, and learning is sure to increase with this remarkable new textbook.

About the Author

Kaitlin N. Sidorsky is Associate Professor of Political Science at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She specializes in domestic violence policy and laws, state government, and women in appointed roles. Sidorsky is the author of All Roads Lead to Power: The Appointed and Elected Paths to Public Office for U.S. Women and co-author of Inequality Across State Lines: How Policymakers Have Failed Domestic Violence Victims in the United States. She has been teaching with simulations her entire career.

Kelly B. Smith is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stetson University. She specializes in the relationship among state legislative politics, bureaucratic politics, and democratic governance. Her current work examines the ways in which bureaucratic networks facilitate policy learning among bureaucrats and legislators during the diffusion of policy and its consequences for states as laboratories of democracy. She, too, has been teaching with simulations in her state politics course for years.