Two nationally renowned congressional scholars review the evolution of Congress from the early days of the republic to 2006, arguing that extreme partisanship and a disregard for institutional procedures are responsible for the institution's current state of dysfunction.

" Making Congress Work, Again, Within the Constitutional System Congress for many years has ranked low in public esteem—joining journalists, bankers, and union leaders at the bottom of polls. And in recent years there's been good reason for the public disregard, with the rise of hyper-partisanship and the increasing inability of Congress to carry out its required duties, such as passing spending bills on time and conducting responsible oversight of the executive branch. Congress seems so dysfunctional that many observers have all but thrown up their hands in despair, suggesting that an apparently broken U.S. political system might need to be replaced. Now, some of the country's foremost experts on Congress are reminding us that tough hyper-partisan conflict always has been a hallmark of the constitutional system. Going back to the nation's early decades, Congress has experienced periods of division and turmoil. But even in those periods Congress has been able to engage in serious deliberation, prevent ill-considered proposals from becoming law—and, over time, help develop a deeper, more lasting national consensus. The ten chapters in this volume focus on how Congress in the twenty-first century can once again fulfill its proper functions of representation, deliberation, legislation, and oversight. The authors offer a series of practical reforms that would maintain, rather than replace, the constitutional separation of powers that has served the nation well for more than 200 years. "

The year was 1939 when a small community near Augusta, Georgia first heard TC utter the riveting phrase, Keep your elbows resting on the needle. TC, a lumberjack and a rich timber baron made a pack. They had stepped across each others shadows since young boys one being of enormous wealth the other having a perfect aim and strength for felling 60 pines and cypress trees. Amidst civil strife, TC convinced a small contingency of friends to follow him deep into the forest across the rugged Acorn Trail to grow their own dreams. On an early morning in May 1945 ten covered wagons had reached the Acorn trail. Having been separated by politics, religion, race and the volatile mixture of love and revenge, few could ever return as the road home was splattered with the blood and ill deeds many had left behind. Forty-five years later, they would take an accounting. Some would call them cowards who high-tailed it. They would offer to drain two manmade lakes slowly. There was Meeliah, an island girl left along while Clay Albert tended to the lives of a rich Philadelphia family and she knew how to bake a pineapple sweet potato pie that could arouse and her jungle sting was severe. Her punishment would be unending; Clay Albert was determined to break her. One day they could not coax her out of the lake. One Sunday three brides-to-be would go off in a huff looking for adventure, a thing called hatching. They came upon a black family. Their intent was to enjoy some freshly churned ice cream and place ribbons in the pretty little girls hair. But three days later, one of the teenage boys would be bludgeoned to death. Was it something they did, said, or wrote? Would Barbara Lynn, a bride-to-be, get to live in the cottage behind the plantation house where slave graves were recently discovered? Did Tim really love her or was he after her blood line. Hed proclaimed, There are no brown spots about me; I am White from tick to tock and my eyes Really? While one community dismantled and escaped into the forest, another one a state away vowed to leave a forest in Dorchester County, South Carolina, beat their tools into cleats and create the greatest civilization of modern times one that would one day leave the gravity of the earth and float among the stars. They had promised their mother a homeland. But first they would tenderly assault unjust social and political structures. Some pressed into their minds that it would take 100 years, but more than one retorted, Were going to do it in one generation. The year is 2012 and counting to 2033 from 1933; a 100 years. Although Thelma claimed to be the mother of more children than any woman known hardly six could be counted at any one time; they having gone on to the other side she said. Shed referred to them as her glories, her carrots. Were they fathom? With little to go on but the suspicious tone of a business attorney and some missing birth certificates, the author recreates this lost civilization in, The Dark Circle The Search for the lost children of the Mud. The tenderness and love between Miles and Thelma Dunston are captured as the, The Slave Girl and the Jew. Five overlapping stories tell of their courage and toils of rebirth of these families and the triumph of the human spirit.

American Politics and Society is a clear and concise introduction to US politics which explains, analyses, and interprets the processes of US government and, crucially, appraises them from a non-US perspective. This completely revised new edition takes in the many changes which have occurred in US politics and explores the ‘political and ideological polarization’ which some commentators see as a significant characteristic of US politics and society today. Engaging with such issues as the rapidly changing balance of support for the Democrats and Republicans, and the continuing decline in the global reputation of the United States, the book provides an up-to-date survey of the views and criticisms of leading political commentators, including commentary on the 2008 presidential election. Written in an accessible style and packed with illustrations and pedagogical features, this book offers a fresh look at the social background to American political and economic life, the institutions and processes of government, and the most recent and dramatic events in the political arena. An accompanying website containing additional support for lecturers and students is available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/mckay/

Congressional ratings have fallen to single digits; citizens believe that Congress fails to do the things its members are publicly paid to do. What does Congress do for our dollars, and how has that changed in the last 50 years? What was the cost to taxpayers for Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings? What about the Benghazi investigation and efforts to obtain the votes required to repeal Obamacare while failing to consider Zika virus funding bills? What is the true cost of earmarks? Why do Congress members continue to get paid during government shutdowns? Congress's increasing use of continuing resolutions and agencies' almost semi-annual preparations for government shutdowns come at a significant cost. Combining extensive documentary research with interviews of current and former members and staffers, The Cost of Congress assesses not only how Congress spends tax dollars on its operations but also what Americans receive for those dollars. Kunz and Atsas assign dollar values, using federal data, to congressional practices and policies. They examine the costs of producing legislation, court challenges, and Supreme Court reversals. They also look at the costs of committee and special investigations, committee assignments, staffing and facilities, and such perks as the gym, meals, and franking. Readers-taxpayers from all walks of life-will come away with a comprehensive view of the costs of operating Congress.

Over fifty years ago, Vatican II's Nostra Aetate 4 drew from Romans 11 to challenge the way Paul's voice has been used to negatively discuss Jews and Judaism. The church called for Catholics to conceptualize Jews as "brothers" in "an everlasting covenant," and many other Christian organizations have expressed similar sentiments in the years since. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Jews as "branches broken off," "hardened," "without faith," "disobedient," and "enemies of God" whom Christians have "replaced" as "true Israel," are among the many ways that readers encounter Paul's views of Jews and Judaism in today's translations and interpretations of this chapter, and throughout the letter as well. In the chapters in this volume, Nanos shows why these translations and interpretive decisions, among others, do not likely represent what Paul wrote or meant. Each essay offers challenges to the received view of Paul from the research hypothesis that Paul and the Christ-followers to whom he wrote were still practicing Judaism (a Jewish way of life) within subgroups of the Jewish synagogue communities of Rome, and that they understood Paul to observe Torah and promote Judaism for their communities.