New Mexico was ceded to the United States in 1848, at the end of the war with Mexico, but not until 1912 did President William Howard Taft sign the proclamation that promoted New Mexico from territory to state. Why did New Mexico’s push for statehood last sixty-four years? Conventional wisdom has it that racism was solely to blame. But this fresh look at the history finds a more complex set of obstacles, tied primarily to self-serving politicians. Forty-Seventh Star, published in New Mexico’s centennial year, is the first book on its quest for statehood in more than forty years. David V. Holtby closely examines the final stretch of New Mexico’s tortuous road to statehood, beginning in the 1890s. His deeply researched narrative juxtaposes events in Washington, D.C., and in the territory to present the repeated collisions between New Mexicans seeking to control their destiny and politicians opposing them, including Republican U.S. senators Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island. Holtby places the quest for statehood in national perspective while examining the territory’s political, economic, and social development. He shows how a few powerful men brewed a concoction of racism, cronyism, corruption, and partisan politics that poisoned New Mexicans’ efforts to join the Union. Drawing on extensive Spanish-language and archival sources, the author also explores the consequences that the drive to become a state had for New Mexico’s Euro-American, Nuevomexicano, American Indian, African American, and Asian communities. Holtby offers a compelling story that shows why and how home rule mattered—then and now—for New Mexicans and for all Americans.

The issue of money looms large in American politics. A series of Supreme Court decisions have cleared the way for corporations and rich donors to pour money into the political system. Proponents of current campaign finance laws argue that it's their right to donate money. Opponents see unlimited corporate money as a threat to democracy itself. This important volume examines the role that money plays in politics and the arguments for and against the status quo.

This booklet contains the stories of six teachers who discuss, step by step, how they each handled a specific restructuring challenge in their schools. They describe what strategies worked and what did not, and provide diagrams and checklists to help other teachers. Chapter 1 describes the implementation of a collaborative school-based decision-making project, the Effective Schools Project, at Centreville Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. Chapter 2, "Matters of Time" (Margaret Almony) discusses how time-management techniques were utilized at Ahuimanu Elementary School in Kanehoe, Hawaii, to make time for a Mastery-in-Learning Project and teacher participation in a site-based-management council. Chapter 3, "Seasons of Change" (Laura P. Krich) describes the implementation of a Mastery-in-Learning Project at Diamond Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts. Chapter 4, "Bringing a New Order to Things" (Jonathan C. Kieffer) describes how Jackson Road Elementary School (in the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public School System) restructured school time to provide for school-based research and faculty collaboration. The fifth chapter, "Pushing Learning beyond the Classroom Walls" (Jeanne Lokar) examines the development of an outcomes-based education (OBE) program at the Richard Mann Building of the Gananda Community School District, in Macedon, New York. The final chapter, "Rising from the Ashes" (Mike Marriam) discusses how failure to initiate a school change facilitated a growth process for Seneca Middle School in Seneca Falls, New York. A glossary and an appendix containing a diagram of systemic school restructuring are included. (LMI)

Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, discusses the state of government and the depths of its political corruption.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)