Excerpt from Government and Politics, in the United States: A Textbook for Secondary Schools Mos'f teachers of Civics agree that the presentation of this subject should commence with local government, and then proceed to the study of the government of the State, and finally of the Nation. Not only is this the correct order historically, but by beginning with local government, the pupil first studies those governmental agencies with which he is most familiar. School district, township, and municipal governments are nearer to his daily life and experiences; and from this basis of civic facts he can proceed more readily to the study of State and federal government. In presenting each of these fields of study, the same gen eral plan of treatment has been followed: first, the origin of government has been briefly outlined, so that the relation of government to history may be understood; second, the structure or machinery of government has been described; and third, the functions or activities of government have been presented, special emphasis being laid upon this phase of the subject. This emphasis is in accordance with the legitimate demand that greater attention be given to the study of applied civics; and accordingly more than half of the chapters of the text are devoted to the work which governments perform. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.