Barbara Geddes is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
To read this book is to witness a teacher and problem solver at
work. Geddes takes inspiration from the literature in comparative
politics and develops strategies for evaluating its claims. In
doing so, she accompanies students as they transit from being
readers and consumers of texts to producers of knowledge. Geddes
launches this journey from an engagement with the macrolevel themes
that dominate our field and that bring to it the young and the
committed; and she equips scholars to render these themes not only
subjects of debate but also subjects of inquiry. There is a rich
mind and skilled mentor behind this work."—Robert H. Bates, Harvard
University
"The quest for cumulative knowledge in comparative politics is
Sisyphean in nature. Yet Barbara Geddes is able to push her boulder
pretty far up that mountain. As she shows with examples from her
own meticulous research designs, comparativists can succeed only by
theorizing processes and putting the implications of their theories
to test. Those who ignore the sage counsel presented in Paradigms
and Sand Castles should prepare themselves for an avalanche of
methodological criticism."—David D. Laitin, Stanford University
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