It's a detailed primer on public administration, and I believe the author's have done an exceptional job with compiling a lot of information and publishing it in a very digestible manner. Many MPA programs use this book (and with good reason) for intro classes. The authors took the approach of providing an adequate depth of many common public administration topics, but obviously doesn't delve too deeply into each section as there are complete fields of academic literature on such topics (ie, the chapter of human resources introduces the student to that topic but isn't all-encompassing). The authors provide detailed information while avoiding overwhelming the reader.It would have been five stars if not for the blatant political favoritism of the authors. Granted many students of MPA programs like myself are inclined to be progressive in nature but academic materials are supposed to be objective texts, way too much "my president was great then these guys screwed up for a few years" for my taste. As an instructor you may want to give your class a head's up to appreciate the detailed information in the book and overlook the authors' biases. Assuming your students even notice of course.