eBooks are accessible online, and many are available for download or 2 week check out.
American Government, 2nd edition
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American Government 2e is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American Government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American Government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them.
The U. S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction
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Many scholars believe that the framers of the Constitution intended Congress to be the preeminent branch of government. Indeed, no other legislature in the world approaches its power. Yet most Americans have only a murky idea of how it works. In The U.S. Congress, Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for more than thirty years, takes readers on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol Hil l- pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and translating parliamentary language into plain English. No mere civicslesson, this eye-opening book provides an insider's perspective on Congress, matched with a professional historian's analytical insight. After a swift survey of the creation of Congress by the constitutional convention, he begins to unscrew the nuts and pull out the bolts. What is it like tocampaign for congress? To attract large donors? To enter either house with no seniority? He answers these questions and more, explaining committee assignments (and committee work), the role of staffers and lobbyists, floor proceedings, parliamentary rules, and coalition building. Ritchie exploresthe great effort put into constituent service - as representatives and senators respond to requests from groups and individuals - as well as media relations and news coverage. He also explores how the grand concepts we all know from civics class - checks and balances, advise and consent,congressional oversight - work in practice, in an age of strong presidents and a muscular Senate minority (no matter which party is in that position). In this sparkling addition to Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, Donald Ritchie moves beyond the cynicism and the platitudes to provide a gem of a portrait of how Congress really works.
Why Are You Here? : A Primer for State Legislators and Citizens
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Why Are You Here?: A Primer for State Legislators and Citizens is a challenge to America's 7,382 state legislators and their constituents to critically examine their state legislature and take appropriate action to improve it. This is a handbook telling how legislatures came to be, how they function, and discussing how they have fallen in public esteem. The book provides an analytical discussion for evaluating how any legislature deals with four issues: personal greed, criminal and ethical scandal, the influence of money and lobbying, and self-serving legislative seat apportionment. The last section is a "Legislative Toolbox" that provides information helpful in evaluating legislatures and readings of a patriotic nature that enhance idealism and spirit.
Women of the 116th Congress: Portraits of Power
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The first woman Speaker of the House. The first female combat veteran. The first Native American women. The first Muslim women. The first openly gay member of the Senate. These are just some of the remarkable firsts represented by the women of the 116th Congress, the most diverse and inclusive in American history. Just over a century ago, Jeannette Rankin of Montana won a seat in the House of Representatives, becoming the first woman ever elected to federal office. In 1917, 128 years after the first United States Congress convened, she was sworn into its 65th session. One hundred and two years later, one has become 131 -- the number of women serving in both chambers of the 116th Congress as of 2019. For most of recorded American history, political power has looked a certain way. But the 2018 midterm elections brought a seismic change. This book documents the women of the 116th Congress in their totality, photographed in the style of historical portrait paintings commonly seen in the halls of power to highlight the stark difference between how we've historically viewed governance and how it has evolved. The Women of the 116th Congressis a testament to what representation in the United States looks and sounds like in 2019 -- and the possibilities of what it may look like in the years to come.
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By The People: Debating American Government
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By The People, Brief Third Edition, reflects the dynamism of American government and politics with new teaching and learning tools that prepare students to ENGAGE, THINK, and DEBATE now more than ever before. In a storytelling approach that weaves contemporary examples together with historical context, By the People: Debating American Government, Brief Third Edition, explores the themes and ideas that drive the great debates in American government and politics. It introduces students to big questions like Who governs? How does our system of government work? What does government do? and Who are we? By challenging students with these questions, the text gets them to think about, engage with, and debate the merits of U.S. government and politics.
Congress and Its Members
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Focusing on the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of re-election-minded politicians has proven to be a powerful and effective way to understand Congress and the legislative process. This edition tackles many of the questions that the Democrat-controlled Congress raises.
Congressional Procedure: The House of Representatives and Senate Explained - A Practical Guide to the Legislative Process In the U.S. Congress
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"A clear explanation of the workings of the United States government that should be required reading for politically engaged Americans." -- KIRKUS Congressional Procedure explains the legislative and congressional budget processes along with all aspects of Congress. This comprehensive guide to Congress is ideal for anyone who wants to know how Congress really works, including federal executives, attorneys, lobbyists, media and public affairs staff, government affairs, policy and budget analysts, congressional office staff and students. Clear explanation of the legislative process, budget process, and House and Senate business Legislative process flowchart Explanation of the electoral college and votes by states Relationship between budget resolutions and appropriation and authorization bills Amendment tree and amendment procedures How members are assigned to committees Glossary of legislative terms Each chapter concludes with Review Questions. Chapter 1 examines the relationship between the U.S. Constitution and the House and Senate. It discusses Constitutional provisions that directly affect Congress. The makeup, roles and leadership of the House and Senate are compared and contrasted. Congressional committees and their place and power in the House and Senate are explored. Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of why members submit legislation, explains the forms of legislation, and lays out the steps involved in drafting legislation. Bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions and simple House and Senate resolutions and their purposes are separately described. Ends with a flowchart of the legislative process. In Chapter 3, the work of Congressional committees is examined in greater detail: types of committees and their structures; subcommittees; power of the chairs of committees; hearings, markups and amendment procedure in committee; and the reporting of legislation to the House and Senate floor. Chapters 4 and 5 follow the course of legislation through the respective chambers and some of the more arcane elements of House and Senate floor action. Chapter 4 addresses some of the unique characteristics of the House including the central and crucial role played by the Rules Committee and the special rules it reports. Scheduling, consideration, amending, and passage of legislation through the House is described in detail. Chapter 5 discusses the handling of legislation on the Senate floor, including unique Senate characteristics like the filibuster, the nuclear option, holds, and the filling of the amendment tree. Chapter 6 explains the various procedures for resolving differences in legislation between the Senate and the House. The budget process is addressed in Chapter 7, including appropriations and authorization procedures, the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act and the key role it has played since its adoption, the use of the optional budget reconciliation process, and the somewhat complex but crucial Byrd Rule. Chapter 8 concludes the detail and analysis of Congressional procedure with a number of processes that are not strictly legislative, including a number of Constitutional responsibilities given to Congress such as oversight and investigation and advice and consent, counting of Electoral College ballots, and impeachment. The conclusion, Chapter 9, describes the way in which many of the procedures explained in this book are increasingly being used, and some would say abused, in both the House and the Senate. Glossary Index Also see related CRS Reports and links on TCNCPAM.com For detailed Table of Contents, see CongressionalProcedure.com
The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era
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A leading legal scholar addresses the most important constitutional controversies of the past two decades and illuminates the Constitution's spirit and ongoing relevance America's Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall famously observed in McCulloch v. Maryland, aspires "to endure for ages to come." The daily news has a shorter shelf life, and when the issues of the day involve momentous constitutional questions, present-minded journalists and busy citizens cannot always see the stakes clearly. In The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar, America's preeminent constitutional scholar, considers the biggest and most bitterly contested debates of the last two decades and provides a passionate handbook for thinking constitutionally about today's headlines. Amar shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, providing specific rules and grand themes relevant to every organ of the American body politic. Prioritizing sound constitutional reasoning over partisan preferences, he makes the case for diversity-based affirmative action and a right to have a gun in one's home for self-protection, and against spending caps on independent political advertising and bans on same-sex marriage. He explains what's wrong with presidential dynasties, advocates a "nuclear option" to restore majority rule in the Senate, and suggests ways to reform the Supreme Court. And he revisits three dramatic constitutional conflicts--the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the contested election of George W. Bush, and the fight over Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act--to show what politicians, judges, and journalists got right as events unfolded and what they missed. Leading readers through the particular constitutional questions at stake in each episode while outlining his abiding views regarding the Constitution's letter, its spirit, and the direction constitutional law must go, Amar offers an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand America's Constitution and its relevance today.
How a Law Is Passed
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For a piece of legislation to become an official law in the United States, it must first undergo a long and complex process involving two branches of the government: the legislative and the executive. ""How a Law Is Passed"" puts students right where the law-making action is by tracking the progress of laws, from proposals in Congress, through debates in the House of Representatives and the Senate, to approval by the president. Readers will also be hooked by this book's lively full-color photographs, detailed narrative, informative sidebars, and concise glossary.
The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress
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No legislature in the world has a greater influence over its nation's public affairs than the US Congress. The Congress's centrality in the US system of government has placed research on Congress at the heart of scholarship on American politics. Generations of American government scholarsworking in a wide range of methodological traditions have focused their analysis on understanding Congress, both as a lawmaking and a representative institution. The purpose of this volume is to take stock of this impressive and diverse literature, identifying areas of accomplishment and promisingdirections for future work. The editors have commissioned 37 chapters by leading scholars in the field, each chapter critically engages the scholarship focusing on a particular aspect of congressional politics, including the institution's responsiveness to the American public, its procedures andcapacities for policymaking, its internal procedures and development, relationships between the branches of government, and the scholarly methodologies for approaching these topics.The Handbook also includes chapters addressing timely questions, including partisan polarization, congressional war powers, and the supermajoritarian procedures of the contemporary Senate. Beyond simply bringing readers up to speed on the current state of research, the volume offers criticalassessments of how each literature has progressed - or failed to progress - in recent decades. The chapters identify the major questions posed by each line of research and assess the degree to which the answers developed in the literature are persuasive. The goal is not simply to tell us where wehave been as a field, but to set an agenda for research on Congress for the next decade.The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. EdwardsIII, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensablereference for anyone working in American politics.General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III
Today's Social Issues: Democrats and Republicans
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Covering everything from abortion to gun control to immigration, this book explains policies and positions of today's Democratic and Republican parties, giving readers a complete understanding of modern-day American politics and the 2016 presidential race. * Offers clear, relevant information on current politics in America that enables readers to better understand the key issues and grasp what is at stake in the 2016 presidential election * Documents differences of opinion on social issues within the Republican and Democratic parties where present and shows how the positions of the parties have changed over time * Describes the issues dividing Democrats and Republicans and how these disagreements shape political gridlock * Discusses interest groups with the most influence for each political party * Features book chapters that are cross-referenced to allow readers easy access to the information they seek
Books from the reference section are available for in library use, or are available for online viewing.
Congress Investigates: A Critical and Documentary History
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Over the past 200 years, Congress has conducted numerous high-level investigations that have riveted the nation, inspired landmark legislation, and transformed American history, including Watergate, Iran-Contra, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. Focusing on a wide array of subjects and issues, these investigations have covered some of the most significant events in our nation's past, including John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868, the Teapot Dome Scandal in 1924, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954. These events have been turning points in American history, and they are vital to our understanding of the U.S. government and political system. Since the publication of the first edition of Congress Investigates: A Documented History more than 35 years ago, Congress has conducted additional investigations of critical historical importance. In addition to new, in-depth articles on these recent investigations, every original article, written by distinguished historians, has been updated and includes illustrations, detailed chronologies, and brief overviews of each investigation. The authors have also added an introduction to every original document in the set, highlighting its significance and historical importance. Loaded with outstanding articles and special features, Congress Investigates: A Critical and Documentary History, Revised Edition is a definitive, comprehensive, and up-to-date reference on this fascinating subject.
The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
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This new edition takes stock of the revolutionary changes that have taken place since the dictionary was first published in 1982. 1790 entries cover every aspect of political thought providing an indispensable guide to the thought, the wisdom and the folly of modern politics by one of the most lucid philosophers of our time.
