{"product_id":"the-american-senate-an-insiders-history-9780190231965","title":"The American Senate: An Insider's History","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Society for History in the Federal Government's George Pendleton Prize for 2013\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe United States Senate has fallen on hard times. Once known as the greatest deliberative body in the world, it now has a reputation as a partisan, dysfunctional chamber. What happened to the house that forged American history's great compromises? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this groundbreaking work, a distinguished journalist and an eminent historian provide an insider's history of the United States Senate. Richard A. Baker, historian emeritus of the Senate, and Neil MacNeil, former chief congressional correspondent for \u003cem\u003eTime\u003c\/em\u003e magazine, integrate nearly a century of\u003cbr\u003ecombined experience on Capitol Hill with deep research and state-of-the-art scholarship. They explore the Senate's historical evolution with one eye on persistent structural pressures and the other on recent transformations. Here, for example, are the Senate's struggles with the presidency--from\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Washington's first, disastrous visit to the chamber on August 22, 1789, through now-forgotten conflicts with Presidents Garfield and Cleveland, to current war powers disputes. The authors also explore the Senate's potent investigative power, and show how it began with an inquiry into John\u003cbr\u003eBrown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. It took flight with committees on the conduct of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and World War II; and it gained a high profile with Joseph McCarthy's rampage against communism, Estes Kefauver's organized-crime hearings (the first to be broadcast), and its\u003cbr\u003eWatergate investigation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWithin the book are surprises as well. For example, the office of majority leader first acquired real power in 1952--not with Lyndon Johnson, but with Republican Robert Taft. Johnson accelerated the trend, tampering with the sacred principle of seniority in order to control issues such as committee\u003cbr\u003eassignments. Rampant filibustering, the authors find, was the ironic result of the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation. No longer stigmatized as a white-supremacist tool, its use became routine, especially as the Senate became more partisan in the 1970s. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThoughtful and incisive, \u003cem\u003eThe American Senate: An Insider's History\u003c\/em\u003e transforms our understanding of Congress's upper house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190231965\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 480\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.30d","brand":"Neil MacNeil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41132213502133,"sku":"9780190231965","price":22.09,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_5327e1c8-92b9-4b1c-a565-e84f2b477004.jpg?v=1632831321","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-american-senate-an-insiders-history-9780190231965","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}