Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics

This book was a required text in my Pro Seminar on Comparative Politics in graduate school. I have to say that it really does add a human element to what seems to often be very flat personalities in the field. It's easy to just assume that some of the greatest scholars in one's field have always been amazing at what they do, and if anything have encountered few issues in graduate school. This book really does a great job of bringing some reality to one's perspective when reading the texts by many of these scholars. Sometimes you find yourself thrown back by how humble scholars can be, and at times you may find that they are very clearly quite sure of themselves. Either way, it's a great narrative and a useful companion to any graduate course that survey's the field of comparative politics. I recommend this book to Graduate Students in Political Science with out any reservations. I wish there were more of these for other fields in Political Science as well! Even if you don't need this book as a required reading for a class, it really is WORTH buying to read on your own or alongside your class readings (even selectively). Thank you Gerardo L. Munck!

love it

One of the best books about political science - and the best about political scientists.

I was expecting more tables, information, like real articles or readings for Academic purposes.However, there are only interviews with great great scholars.It's ok!

This is the missing link in graduate education today! Ph.D students go through the professionalization rituals nowadays without any passion for politics or scholarship. There's no sense of history either. This book corrects that anomaly to a great extent. It should be required reading for every graduate student in political science, not just comparativists.