Customer Reviews

Almanac of American Politics 1980

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This edition is very similar to the 1974, 1976 and 1980 editions of the book. It does continue to give a very brief biography of the governor and good state profiles, but some of the pictures are dated, and, in typical Barone style many of the congressional bios are scarcely edited from the previous editions--this is understandable due to the number of congressmen and the bi-annual nature of the book. The scores are somewhat helpful, but the Congressional Quarterly "Politics in America" includes more party unity and presidential support scores, helpful in analyzing the member's overall voting pattern in relation to others in the member's party. That said, this is another excellent edition by Barone, not marred by his excessive editorialization in recent editions.

This is the 1980 edition of the famous book by Michael Barone, Grant Ujifusa and Douglas Matthews (This was the last edition on which Douglas Matthews collaborated.) Ever since 1971, a new edition of this book has appeared to provide the most comprehensive political picture possible of each member of the United States Congress and Senate.

This 1980 edition analyzes the congressional members elected in the election of 1978, who held office during the last two years of the Carter Administration. This analysis is based on the voting records of the members during the first two years of the Carter Administration.

Even though researchers, lobbyists or ordinary citizens, who own this book will find it necessary to buy a new edition of this book every two years to stay current, old editions of this book are well worth keeping as a historic record of the first two years of the Carter administration and the issues that concerned the American public during that period of time.