Review
This book is the foundation text for courses on the U.S. Congress. It is clear, comprehensive, and easy to read. Students appreciate the up-to-date examples and the clearly-presented information. The authors use of the dual Congress framework helps to illuminate the underlying tension between the individual and collective responsibilities of legislators. This is one of the fundamental books for understanding how Congress operates. --Pam Camerra-Rowe, Kenyon College
Written in clear, direct prose,
Congress and Its Members provides students with a central theme, the two Congresses, that enables them to organize and understand the myriad details that characterize the structure and operation of a very complex institution. I particularly value the fact that by following that theme through the many dimensions of Congress, students learn to think analytically as they learn about Congress itself. --Dennis J. Goldford, Drake University
Written in clear, direct prose,
Congress and Its Members provides students with a central theme, the two Congresses, that enables them to organize and understand the myriad details that characterize the structure and operation of a very complex institution. I particularly value the fact that by following that theme through the many dimensions of Congress, students learn to think analytically as they learn about Congress itself. --Dennis J. Goldford, Drake University
About the Author
Roger H. Davidson is professor emeritus of government and politics at the University of Maryland, and has served as visiting professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. For the 2001-2002 academic year, he served as the John Marshall Chair in political science at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. His books include
Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990's, co-edited with James A. Thurber (1995), and
Understanding the Presidency, Third Edition, co-edited with James P. Pfiffner (2003). Davidson is co-editor with Donald C. Bacon and Morton Keller of
The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995).
Walter J. Oleszek is a senior specialist in the legislative process at the Congressional Research Service. He has served as either a full-time professional staff aide or consultant to every major House and Senate congressional reorganization effort beginning with the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. In 1993, he served as Policy Director of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. A long-time adjunct faculty member at The American University, Oleszek is a frequent lecturer before various academic, governmental and business groups. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Congress and Its Members, 10th ed. (2006),with Roger H. Davidson, and Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the Republican Majority (1997), with C. Lawrence Evans.
Frances E. Lee is associate professor of government and politics at University of Maryland. She has been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an APSA Congressional Fellow. She coauthored Sizing Up The Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation with Bruce I. Oppenheimer, which won the D. B. Hardeman Prize in 1999. Her articles have appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Journal of Political Science, among others.</p
