A Mathematics Course for Political and Social Research

For decades, political scientists with little math background were introduced to the techniques using books borrowed from economics departments. I myself used Chiang as an undergraduate, then used Binmore and Simon & Blume as a graduate student. When I tried to teach, the selections were not much better: I tried Sydsaeter & Hammond, Klein, and too many books to mention here. With rare exceptions, their examples are drawn from economics and assume the student has the appropriate background knowledge. A heavy burden fell on the instructor to persuade students that the material was relevant to them.This book has taken away some of that burden with copious "why should I care?" subsections that explain the material's relevance. As the authors explain in their preface, they also sought to strip away some of the bravado that is too typical in math textbooks, removing the "Clearly..." and "Obviously..." meta-discourse.The book's coverage makes it ideal for a one-semester math class or a summer 'math camp' for students in the typical, empirically-oriented doctoral program in political science. It has sections on univariate and multivariate calculus, probability theory, and matrix algebra. I assigned it for my math class this summer despite having only the table of contents in hand, but after using the book, I'll assign it again (and again, and again...) enthusiastically.

Clear, accessible, and well-written. The authors make a great effort to keep all readers on board and to explain why mathematical concepts are useful for political scientists at every stage.

Good book! Especially like they way the authors link math to social research.

A comprehensive into to the math one needs for advanced stats. I would have rated it higher on substance but think that it was a bit lacking in physical format. So my rating is really 4 1/2 stars.

This is a fantastic resource for a beginning graduate student in the social sciences with less of a math background who wants to get up to speed fast. Entering grad school, I had had no more math background than some introductory stats courses and Calculus 1. This books covers topics such as probability theory, calculus (both univariate and multivariate), and linear algebra in a straightforward and intuitive manner. The motivation sections provide context for why each topic is relevant, for those who are interested in that. Having gone on to more difficult material, I still find myself reaching for this quite a bit to provide a refresher on some particular method or tool that I need a reminder on. One of the most used books I possess.

Difficult to follow, some exercises were wrong. Overall did not really use it for my class.

Very good book for those willing to learn maths from the ground up. It has helped me immensely in my stats classes. Strongly recommended for those who need but don't like mathematics.

For someone who hates math, this was an awesome intro to complex topics. The corresponding video lectures were very helpful.