The People's Share
GED Social Studies · Civics and Government

Civics, Chapter by Chapter

The whole civics half of the Social Studies test, in twelve chapters, each built around the documents and the kinds of questions the test uses.

How to use these chapters

Civics and government make up half of the GED Social Studies test. Start with the Civics Flyover, which gives a short first look at the whole subject in seven questions. Then work through these chapters in order. Each one tells the story, reads the key documents closely in plain words, lists the words to know, and ends with twelve questions in the test's own style, with a key that explains every answer.

Before you begin, you can take the Civics Diagnostic to see which chapters to start with. Before your test date, the last page on this list gathers the most important points from every chapter.

The chapters

Twelve chapters, in order

  1. 1
    Where Power Comes From: Rights, Consent, and Kinds of GovernmentKinds of government; Locke and the other thinkers; the Declaration of Independence; who was left out.
  2. 2
    The First Try: The Articles of ConfederationThe first national government, why it was weak on purpose, Shays' Rebellion, and why it failed.
  3. 3
    The Convention: Compromises over Representation and SlaveryPhiladelphia, 1787: the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Clause, and the other bargains.
  4. 4
    The Fight over RatificationFederalists and Anti-Federalists, the Federalist Papers, and the promise of a Bill of Rights.
  5. 5
    Three Branches, and How Each Checks the OthersHow the Constitution is laid out; Congress, the president, and the courts; how a bill becomes law; the veto, the override, and judicial review.
  6. 6
    Nation and States: FederalismWhich powers belong to the nation, which to the states, and which they share.
  7. 7
    The Bill of RightsThe first ten amendments, one by one, with the landmark cases that give them meaning.
  8. 8
    The Second Founding: the 13th, 14th, and 15th AmendmentscomingEnding slavery, citizenship, equal protection, due process, and the vote.
  9. 9
    Rights on Paper, Rights DeniedcomingThe black codes, Jim Crow, Plessy and Brown, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and what continues today.
  10. 10
    Who Counts and Who VotescomingThe widening of the right to vote, the census, the Electoral College, and districts.
  11. 11
    Parties, Elections, and Public PolicycomingPolitical parties, interest groups, campaigns, and how public policy is made.
  12. 12
    Citizens' Rights and ResponsibilitiescomingWhat the Constitution asks of citizens, and what you can do.
  13. ★
    All the AmendmentsReference: all twenty-seven changes to the Constitution, and the story behind each one.
  14. ✓
    Before the Test: Civics in One SittingcomingThe last look before test day: the terms, the quotations, the pairs that are easy to mix up, and a mixed set of questions.