An Introduction to Political and Social Data Analysis (With R)

Thomas Holbrook is Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was a Distinguished Professor and the Wilder Crane Professor of Government in the political science department. He is a former editor of American Politics Research and the author of Do Campaigns Matter (Sage, 1996), Altered States (Oxford, 2016), and dozens of articles on various aspects of voting behavior and elections in the United States, most recently focusing on local politics. Professor Holbrook has taught undergraduate courses on data analysis and survey research for the past three decades and has integrated R into his data analysis courses for the past several years.

Introduction to Research and Data Using R to Do Data Analysis Frequencies and Basic Graphs Data Preparation Measures of Central Tendency Measures of Dispersion Probability Sampling and Inference Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis Testing with Two Groups Hypothesis Testing With Multiple Groups (ANOVA) Hypothesis Testing with Non-Numeric Variables (Crosstabs) Measures of Association Correlation and Scatterplots Simple Regression Multiple Regression Advanced Regression Topics Regression Assumptions

Clarity in communication is absolutely essential in introductory methodology and data science courses. Holbrook's way with words makes complicated statistical and computational language easy to understand and instills confidence in students. -- Jeffrey M. Glas The book introduces many useful concepts without getting too bogged down in any individual concept. Students get a huge, wide exposure to content. This will help facilitate class conversations on day one, which is a real leverage. -- Soren Jordan Holbrook introduces complex and technically challenging concepts in a way that, for those new to the world of R, is approachable and easy to understand. Fantastic introductory text for undergraduate study. -- Daniel Ashwood Chapter 1 provides a strong overview of the research process. While it talks a lot about data, it does so in a non-technical way that I think most undergraduates would be able to get through reasonably well. The examples provided are relevant and broadly interesting. -- Aaron Sparks This text is structured well for taking students through Data Analysis for political science. Students are walked through both the meaning of the statistics examined and how the computer can be made to generate them. Each section builds on the preceding sections in a clear manner. The only problem with this book is that I wish I had written it. I can't wait to use it. -- Brad Lockerbie Professor Holbrook's book provides an accessible entry-point for students of all levels to use data for political and social research, while offering clear and easy-to-understand guidance to the use of the R software. -- Renato Corbetta This is a highly engaging and practical introduction to social research using R. All the essentials are here with little to no distracting material that might confuse already anxious students. I highly recommend this text. -- Scott Liebertz