What are some good books on public policy issues?

Answer 1

Public policy is such a large subject, but one of my favorite books about public policy for modern cities is A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger (he's also the author of Friday Night Lights.)

Mr. Bissinger used to be a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. During Ed Rendell's first term as mayor of Philadelphia, Bissinger was given complete access to the administration. On the one hand, the book is an interesting look at how public policy gets made at the local level, however he takes it one step further by talking with people who live in the City and how public policy (or that lack of it) impacts their lives. So some of the public policy issues important to cities are covered like poverty and economic development (the Phila. Navy Yard was closing while the books was being written.)

I don't know if this is what you had in mind exactly, but it is an interesting book.

I hope it helps!

Answer 2

So many of the books on public policy lean either to the left or right. If you're looking for something unbiased, I'm not sure where to go for that. But when I put "Public policy" into a search at amazon.com, 10,130 results came up. Maybe you could start there.

http://www.amazon.com/Public-Policy-Government-Nonfiction-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=10769