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Book Review
| Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress: New Perspectives on the History of Congress. Ed. by David W. Brady and Mathew D. McCubbins. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. xxiv, 549 pp. Cloth, $75.00, ISBN 0-8047-4570-6. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-8047-4571-4.)
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| Historians should take notice of this collection. For too many decades, America's Congress has received minimal attention from historians. Since the social history revolution in the 1960s, those remaining political historians have focused on the executive branch and mass political movements. Although a few historians such as Michael Holt, Joel Silbey, Morton Keller, and James Patterson have skillfully written about Congress, as well as a few biographies, the scholarship has been thin. |
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In contrast, congressional history is now thriving in political science. The subfields of American political development and congressional studies are both deeply immersed in the institutional evolution of the House and Senate. To test theories about how government institutions operate and to understand how historical processes shape politics, political scientists have been producing highly original history. The essays in this book showcase some of the best scholarship in the discipline. They reveal what these scholars are accomplishing and where there is room for historians to contribute to this project. |
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