"This book examines the struggle between President Obama and the United States Congress to manage federal spending and tax policy for the three and one half years between 2009 and the summer of 2012. More than half the book focuses on the intense 44-day crisis in June and July 2…
Pulitzer Prize finalist Philip Dray shines a light on a little known group of men: the nation's first black members of Congress. These men played a critical role in pushing for much-needed reforms in the wake of a traumatic civil war, including public education for all children,…
This is an account of how Congress today really works, and doesn't, that follows the dramatic journey of the sweeping financial reform bill enacted in response to the Great Crash of 2008. The founding fathers expected Congress to be the most important branch of government and ga…
This book explores highly charged topics that give special meaning to the U.S. Senate's life and culture. They include the decades-long struggles between the Senate and the President for control in shaping legislation; the origins and substance of the Senate seniority system; th…
""The most hated man in New England," as critics dubbed him on the eve of the Civil War, Caleb Cushing, brash and controversial, was perhaps the last of 19th-century America's renaissance figures. Poet and politician, essayist and diplomat, general and lawyer, this multidimensio…
"David R. Mayhew examines standard history books on the United States and identifies more than two thousand actions by individual members of the House and Senate that are significant enough to be mentioned. Mayhew offers insights into a wide range of matters, from the nature of …
To understand American politics and government, we need to recognize that members of Congress are more than agents of societal interests and preferences -- they also act with some autonomy and consequence in the public sphere. In this illuminating book, a distinguished political…
This work demonstrates that a close look at American politicians at work in their districts can tell the observer a great deal about the process of representation. The author reveals grassroots approaches to explore how patterns of representation have changed in recent decades.
"The book develops a new theoretical perspective on bureaucratic influence and congressional agenda setting based on limited attention and government information processing. Using a comprehensive new data set on regulatory policymaking across the entire federal bureaucracy, the …