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Rowman & Littlefield
The following review appeared in the August 2018 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Political Science - U.S. Politics
This book provides an overview of the development, or decline, of the Senate from the 1950s to the present, highlighting current issues between the Senate and President Trump. The institutional problems mark a devolution from the Senate’s golden age of influence and bipartisanship in the 1960s and 70s. Blame for this degeneration is placed on the deterioration of American politics, political culture, and American government in general, but the target is clearly partisan throughout the narrative, as decline is pegged as coinciding with Republican resurgence in the institution. The book looks first at Mitch McConnell’s leadership in the Trump-era Senate, and then moves chronologically through Senate history from the Kefauver hearings of the early 1950s into the first year of Trump’s presidency. Senate decline begins with Ronald Reagan’s election as president and the Republicans' “shattering” of the existing order by taking the Senate majority for the first time in 25 years. The review of Senate’s activities from the 1980s provides some excellent snapshots of critical events affecting the body and are the strength of the book. It concludes with some suggestions for reordering the Senate to recover its lost prestige.
--K. Casey, Northwest Missouri State University